Last posts on israel

Palestinian Christians

2010-06-23T01:43:18+02:00

I have been living in the Old City of Jerusalem for about a month now, and in the last week I discovered that the two streets by Jaffa Gate have business' which are owned by "Palestinian Christians"

During my time here I have realized how easy it is to spot the Muslims and the Jews, but so hard to SEE who the Christians are as they don't really wear anything that separates them from anyone else, like the two others do.

As I went up these streets this evening I was met by a man with a tattoo on his forearm. It's not common to see tattoos here in Jerusalem. So I asked to look at it and it was the word FREEDOM in English in capital letters. He then proceeded to pull out this large silver crucifix from around his neck. He told me he has FREEDOM in Christ.

At first this was a breath of fresh air to see a Palestinian so excited about their relationship with Jesus. I came back later on to watch the world cup game and to get to see what it was like for an Arab Christian in Jerusalem. Well what he proceeded to tell me shocked and saddened me.

Before telling you what he said, I want to explain that the culture here is quite open unlike the USA where people take a long time to really talk to each other about things that matter. Here most people lay everything out on the table.

I asked him what he meant by having this freedom in Christ. He proceeded to tell me that he was raised Catholic but started coming to the Christ Church(Which is where I am volunteering it is an Anglican Church) in 2002 where he said he became "Born Again". But the people started telling him all the things that he shouldn't be doing. So he went back to the Catholic church and now is happy.

I asked him why and he said.."Now I have the FREEDOM to do whatever I want". I asked, "Like what?"

"Go out with girls, drink, smoke...just be free". I said, "Well are you just going out with these girls or are you sleeping with them?"

He said matter of factly, "Oh, of course I am sleeping with them". I was trying to keep my jaw up. I couldn't believe that he thought all of that was his FREEDOM in Christ!! What a contradiction. He then told me that sometimes he feels bad after, but then he just goes and confesses and does it again. No remorse shown at all.

I asked, "So if I came to your shop and stole something and then came back and asked for forgiveness how many times would you continue to forgive me if I just kept doing it habitually?" He said, "He'd only forgive me the first time." But of course God is different.

So I showed him what it says in Romans, about how we are FREE not to sin, and to not be bound by the desires of our flesh. I shared with him that I am no where near perfect either, but still the choices he was making weren't freedom, but actually slavery to sin.

Christianity here is nothing like Christianity in America. Or Christianity in the Bible for that matter. All the Christian shops sell tons of alcohol and cigarettes and they have bars and pubs that are actually called Christian. After seeing all this I asked myself, why in the world would anyone want this?? They are portraying Christ as the world...it's completely turned upside down.

I can see how Muslims and Jews for that matter don't want anything to do with Jesus, would you want anything to do with him if he was portrayed to be how the Christians here paint him to be? I wouldn't.

Please pray that the Lord will raise up real, true CHRISTIANS people that exemplify Christ in their lives. We are supposed to be set apart for the Lord, yet here WE (Christians) are the world...we are what the bible says we are to flee from.

I believe that this isn't far from happening in the USA either...every time you compromise and give into your flesh, because you have the freedom and you think that no one is watching, it isn't true. People are watching us and every time you don't do what is honest, and true and upright you are being a BAD example of the one that you are supposed to be representing. I am just as guilty as the next person and there's no way that we are going to be perfect, but man we are supposed to aim high. You can't do it in your own strength. Ask God to help you but don't just give into temptation because we have God's grace to forgive us. Stay away from sin because you are no longer a slave to it.

We have FREEDOM not to sin!!

We need to stand up and take action in LOVE but in righteousness!! "

"Let your light so shine before men that they see your GOOD WORKS and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Living in Jerusalem

2010-06-07T09:17:00+02:00

Life in any other city...is easy I believe compared to the intensity of living in this volatile place. I have lived here before at different times in my life, but this time every emotion seems heightened, like when you are watching a dramatic movie and you are on the edge of your seat waiting to see what will happen. That intense feeling and adrenaline rush is how I feel here all the time, constantly on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen.

I am learning how people of all different faiths are so deeply rooted in their beliefs that it seems to me impossible that anyone would change their point of view or even convert. Jesus is the dividing factor in these three major religions...for the Jews he was nothing more than a man. Muslims nothing more than a prophet, whose words they say have been corrupted in the New Testament, and that Jesus didn't die on the cross. They say that Judas, the traitor, was transformed to look like Jesus, and he died on the cross in place of Jesus. Because Allah would never allow his prophet Jesus to die in such a way.

WHAT!! This negates everything that Jesus said and the only reason that He came to earth...which was to die. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that ISLAM is the greatest deception of the Devil. It teaches Jesus without the cross...but without the cross Jesus came in vain. Without the cross Christianity is vainity...and there is no hope for any of us.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only proof that we have of forgiveness of our sins. Muslims, Jews and all other religions it is all about works it is about being "good enough" But none of us will ever be "good enough" Therefore with out Jesus where is our hope? There is none!

All of this makes me incrediably sad and just at a standstill in where to go what to say how to act. To be honest the past couple days of being here I have been so depressed. The rejection of Jesus in the very place where he lived and walked and breathed..is overwhelming to me.

But I have had to realize that it didn't bother Jesus..He went to the cross alone..everyone had left him everyone rejected him. I can't even begin to imagine the depth of sadness...but he said he did it with JOY!! WOW..I mean it is in this that true unconditional love is shown...He loved us even when we hated him.

Therefore in this I can have hope that Jesus loves Muslims, Jews, and whomever else is rejecting Him...He loves them so so much!! But there's only one way to heaven and that's by accepting His love and forgiveness and accepting what He did for you on the cross...there's no way around the cross...

Just a question...If you are a Christian, have you shared Jesus with someone today, this week, this month? If you haven't be sure to know that Muslims are sharing Islam...If you aren't sharing the life changing truth of Jesus with someone then why not? Someone told you about Jesus...tell someone!

If you are reading this and don't know Jesus...please know that He loves you so much and wants to give you the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. You will never be "good enough" to go to heaven. Ask Jesus to forgive your sins and make you whole again. Then find a Bible and get plugged into a Bible teaching church.

Palestine

2010-05-18T03:56:00+02:00

I have grown up in the United States and never realized that getting three meals a day and having a full refrigerator were uncommon. I thought that having countless outfits and 10 pairs of shoes was nothing out of the ordinary. Traveling to Western Europe in my late teens I thought the same, actually they had even more than we did in America, everything was clean and there seemed to be no poverty and very little crime.

But I was so wrong...the majority of people live in squalor and poverty. The more I learn about the situations abroad the more it makes me detest my blazon selfishness and the American attitude of "You deserve a break today"

I have several arab and Middle Eastern friends and am trying to get a better grasp on where they are coming from. I am trying to take the American Culture part of me that is so deeply ingrained and step into their weathered sandals for a moment.

I have been raised Christian, and I wholeheartedly believe in the Bible as the Word of God, and my whole life I've studying Jewish culture and customs in the sense that I've studied the Old Testament of the bible which is nothing more than the Holy Scriptures of the Jews.

I went to Israel and volunteered at a Humanitarian Aid Organization to help new Jewish immigrants with food and clothing and things like that. But we lived in the middle of an Arab neighborhood where there was much need, but even though the warehouse was full of food and clothing we never to my knowledge give out any of our resources to these needy Arabs. Perhaps it wouldn't have been the Christian thing to do, in the sense that the donations were given by Americans to be given to God's chosen people the Jews, not the Palestinians.

I have been to the West Bank, and I have been to crowded little houses in the Old City of Jerusalem where families live like sardines and try to make their living off tourists that come through. I have heard Zion Jewish tour guides telling Christian tourists not to go and buy in the Arab section, but to be "safe" in the Jewish district. They of course don't mention that the same items are sold in the Jewish section for 3x the amount as in the Arab section. But aren't we Christians just helping the Jews.

I suppose we are in a sense, but are we really showing the love of Jesus who we are supposed to be representing? Just because you give Jewish people more money doesn't mean that they are going to love Jesus any more, but by giving LOVE to them and showing love to Arab Muslims and Arab Christians that will speak louder than words and be more effective that wars and harshness.

Palestinians are being treated by Jews the same way that Jews were treated by so many in Europe. Why after being delivered from the Ghettos themselves would they force a whole people group into the same place they came from. In that sense what's the difference between them and the Germans...ohh...yes...they are God's chosen people so it gives them permission.

Jesus died for everyone!

Short Novel: Bauhausler, Chapter 6

2009-10-09T12:07:00+02:00

Please read Introduction first.

Masasko was surprised to know Marcus was Jew. She never thought he was.
"Marcus, have you ever heard of the legend that some of your people also migrated to our country, Japan?"
"What are you talking about?" said Marcus. He seemed to be surprised with her reaction.
"It is a legend that about 2600 years ago, your people arrived in Japan from Israel and settled down there" said Masako delightedly.
"2600 years ago? Is it when 10 of 12 our tribes left Israel because of Assyria's occupation?"
"Interesting thing is that is when our imperial calender year starts. Meaning our majesty is a descendant of Jewish immigrant who established Japan."
Marcus became very curious about her story.
"We have some similarities. Japan's national religious faith, Shinto have some common customs and ceremonies."
"Interesting? What are these?"
"For example, in Japanese Shinto shrine, we wash hands at the entrance. There is a hand-wash place near the entrance. Once you get in, you first have to wash hands and then go to pray."

"Yes. the synagogue has the same thing. To purify before you pray."
"Don't you also use salt for purification?" asked Masako.
"Yes, on Sabath day, we spray salt on bread and eat it. You do the same thing?"
"Well, we don't eat salted bread but use salt to purify ourselves. One of typical things is we spray salt on people who came home back from funeral. The other typical thing is Sumo wrestlers spray salt on the fighting ring before a match. Sumo wrestling is originated from Shinto ceremony."
"Interesting. What else do we have in common?"
"Do you know Ark of Convent, which had been lost for thousands of years?"

"Yes, a famous bible story."
"Actually that exists in Japan as ritural ceremony or you might want to say "Fest"?"
"Festivals?"
"People carry the box which resembles Ark of Convent, called Omikoshi. It has golden birds on the top just like Ark of Convent. People carry it on their shoulders in group just like ancient Israeli did in the ceremony in front of King David. In some region people cross the river carrying the Omikoshi box as though your anscestors passed the Jordan river."

"Wow, suprised to hear. I have never been to Japan but I wish to see such things if I can visit there some day."
Marcus's response pleased her.
"Surely, you should come to Japan some day. We have common ground. We are connected" said Masako making a big smile.
Suddenly Marcus face turned sad and said to her.
"What does it matter if we have a common ground or difference? Connected or not?"
"Did I say anything wrong?" said Masako anxiously.
"No, you didn't say anything wrong. I mean, I just don't care whether we have similarities or differences. We are all humans anyway. We can share love or joy or anything else with one another" said Marcus.
Masako was shocked to see Marcus's response. She did not understand what he meant.
"Are you going to be free this afternoon? We have classes only in the morning. After lunch, I can take you to the place where anyone should have shared the same value. I really want to take you there."
Marcus said making a big smile to her. She thought she should go with him.

Masako was in Marcus's car driving to the city of Dessau, two hours from Berlin. That was where former school building of Bauhaus existed. They, two did not talk each other in the car. Marcus looked very serious and she got nervous by his face.
"There you see, that is where we used to teach and learn" said Marcus and he stopped the car.
She got out of the car and looked at it.

"Wow, this is very nice design" said Masako with surprise. The glass wall building impressed her very much.
"You like that. Yes, because you are Bauhausler and you have the sense of understanding."
Marcus said and was glad with her response.
"Your school is not using this building any more. Why left here?" asked Masako. Actually that was what she had been wondered even before she came to Berlin because at first she heard the school was located in Dessau but soon later it was relocated to Berlin.
"We were kicked out. We had to leave Dessau and restarted in Berlin as private institution."
"What happened? Who kicked out?"
"You know, Bauhaus was at first established in Weimar, 1919 by Walter Gropius. Later the school moved to Dessau in 1925. I joined the school since then. When the school was relocated to Dessau, we were very much welcome by the city councils as revolutionalist. The city gave us aid to construct this new modern style building and our Meister's house. But welcome atmosphere did not last so long."

Marcus looked at her sadly.
"As time passed, growing nationalist movement took on us. The city council was dominated by nationalists." Marcus remembered harsh memories.
"You mean, Nazis?"
"Yeah, they took over the city's politics and banned aid to us. But it was not just by Nazis but many conservative people. They did not like us from the beginning. They called this building "Aquarium" or oriental sense of humor."
"Oriental sense of humor?" Masako was suprised with such furious words.
"Oh, no. I do not mean to offend you. That is how they expressed. They are not familiar with Bauhaus concept. You know, beauty in simplicity, minimalism. They could never understand that."
"Well, that is exactly orientalism, I think. Especially where I come from, we have the concept of seeking beauty in simplified things. It is called "Wabi-Sabi." It is a concept derived from the Buddhist assertion of the Three marks of existence (三法印, sanbōin), specifically impermanence (無常, mujō). We do not like too much decoration in architecture or houses. Finding beauty in simple thing and quiet atmosphere is most important matter in our culture. In that sense our culture might harmonize with Bauhaus" said Masako. She just came up with this wabi-sabi thing not to make him serious any more.
Marcus laughed and said,
"You always surprise me. ha, ha. I am glad to hear that. But to me Bauhaus is a new idea that can be shared with anybody in the world."
"But we are no longer welcome in your society."
"I beleive there should be a time anybody in the world can understand this concept. Whether you are westerner, Asian or anybody else. It benefits all the people in the world. Should be common ground for all of us."
Marcus showed firm commitment as Meister of Bauhaus. Masako found herself attracted to him.

To be continued to Chapter 7.

Amnesty International Pulls out of Concert Fund

2009-08-20T01:14:00+02:00

Amnesty International Withdraws from Leonard Cohen's Israel Concert Fund

by PACBI & NYCBI ( info [at] nycbi.org )
Tuesday Aug 18th, 2009 1:58 PM

Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert's proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (PACBI) & NEW YORK CAMPAIGN FOR THE BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (NYCBI)

Amnesty International Withdraws from Leonard Cohen’s Israel Concert Fund

Media Contacts: pacbi [at] pacbi.org, info [at] boycottisraelnyc.org

New York, NY, August 18 – Amnesty International has announced today that it will abstain from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and will not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert's proceeds. A number of media accounts had reported that Amnesty International was to manage or otherwise partner in a fund created from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel that would be used to benefit Israeli and Palestinian groups. Amnesty International’s announcement today followed an international outcry over the human rights organization’s reported involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert fund, and an earlier international call for Cohen to boycott apartheid Israel.

Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) commented, “We welcome Amnesty International’s withdrawal from this ill-conceived project which is clearly intended to whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. By abandoning the Leonard Cohen project in Tel Aviv, Amnesty International has dealt Cohen and his public relations team a severe blow, denying them the cover of the organization’s prestige and respectability.”

A statement confirming Amnesty's withdrawal has now been posted on the Amnesty International website.

After reports in late July that Amnesty International would manage a fund from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s concert in Israel, groups in occupied Palestine and around the world mobilized to pressure Amnesty International not to participate in such a fund. The Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations’ Network (PNGO) called in an August 11th letter on Amnesty International to reject management of a fund that is to be created from the proceeds of Leonard Cohen’s planned September concert in Israel. The West Bank village of Bil’in had made a similar appeal to Amnesty International. An international campaign of about one thousand letters to Amnesty International called for Amnesty’s withdrawal from the Cohen concert initiative. The only Palestinian organization that was claimed to be a recipient of the fund had previously announced that it was not involved in the project. Additionally, a representative of the joint Palestinian Israeli group Combatants for Peace, another previously announced beneficiary of the Cohen concert fund, had informed the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel in writing that the group had decided not to participate in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv and not to accept any funds from its proceeds.

PNGO explained in their letter to Amnesty International that Israel Discount Bank, a major sponsor of Cohen’s concert in Israel, “is involved in the construction and the continuation of the Israeli settlement project in the oPT [occupied Palestinian Territories]… These settlements built on Palestinian lands are illegal under international law and are considered as war crimes in the Fourth Geneva Convention.” PNGO added that Cohen’s “concert in Israel contributes in normalizing Israeli occupation and colonization policies.” In an August 9th letter to Amnesty International, the West Bank village of Bil’in, a leader in the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement, said that, “Israel Discount Bank’s trading room and other computer services are run by an Israeli company called Matrix IT. Matrix IT’s trading room is located on our villages land stolen by the illegal settlement of Modiin Illit.”

Additionally, nineteen groups and organizations worldwide explained in an open letter to Amnesty International that, “Being one of the world’s strongest proponents of human rights and international law, you shall thus be subverting a non-violent, effective effort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel's violations of international law and human rights principles.” The groups asserted that, “Accepting funds from the proceeds of Cohen’s concert in Israel is the equivalent of Amnesty accepting funds from a concert in Sun City in apartheid South Africa.” They also commented that the Peres Center for Peace, Amnesty International’s announced partner in managing the concert fund, “has been denounced by leading Palestinian civil society organizations for promoting joint Palestinian-Israeli projects that enhance ‘Israeli institutional reputation and legitimacy, without restoring justice to Palestinians.’”

...Read more here

The Haj

2009-03-08T10:18:22+01:00

Be warned, this book may ignite racial discrimination.

The story is about Haj Ibrahim al Soukori al Wahhabi, a Muslim tribe leader living in Aqbat Jabar in the Palestine, who was caught in a conundrum between his ancient Arab roots and the Jews.

It covers what happened in Palestine before, during and after the declaration of the State of Israel. It's not a hardcore historical book. It's fiction. Think of Noli Me Tangere. It's like that. Maybe more.

The Arabs do not acknowledge the State of Israel and treats the Jews as the infidels of the infidels. They believe they have been deprived of their rightful place, the Palestine. But the Jews are, and will always be, hospitable to them. The Arabs refuse to believe that. Any Muslim Arab who will acknowledge the kindness of the Jews will be treated as traitor.

Also, the neighbouring Arab nations of Israel refuse to let the Palestinian refugees settle or live in their countries. They want the world to see how "badly" these refugees are treated. They want the sympathy of the world. They want the Arabs' hatred to the Jews keep on burning.

When the refugees were offered with help, especially from the U.N., they took advantage of it. They did nothing to help and improve their communities, or so called refugee camps. They love to hate the Jews.

I'm still in touched with the book. That's no opinion. It did annoy me that I could almost loathe such foolishness of the Arabs (in the book), ~~which might be projected to the real Arabs~~. I could've hated the Arabs and Muslims for this, but there's a greater "force" in this, which they are victims. And I know reasonable Muslims, one of them is my godmother. I refuse to hate.

Humanity was the last thing of the minds of the Syrians and Egyptians.
Perpetuation of hatred was the first, and in that they have succeeded.
--Haj Ibrahim

However, no revolution has ever come from the Arab people, only coups, holy wars and assassinations.
--Gideon Asch, Jewish friend of Haj Ibrahim

Teamwork requires trust. There is no trust among us.
We pride in ourselves on our potency. In truth, we are impotent.
--Haj Ibrahim

This may not be a book for entertainment, but it's a good book if you want to "see" and "know" what is happening between the Jews and the Arabs. There is truth in this book.

It's quite complicated so I'll just insert this link.

The Boss Has Gone Mad

2009-01-21T13:21:00+01:00

By: URI AVNERY

169 years before the Gaza War, Heinrich Heine wrote a premonitory poem of 12 lines, under the title “To Edom”. The German-Jewish poet was talking about Germany, or perhaps all the nations of Christian Europe. This is what he wrote (in my rough translation):

For a thousand years and more
We have had an understanding
You allow me to breathe
I accept your crazy raging

Sometimes, when the days get darker
Strange moods come upon you
Till you decorate your claws
With the lifeblood from my veins

Now our friendship is firmer
Getting stronger by the day
Since the raging started in me
Daily more and more like you.

Zionism, which arose some 50 years after this was written, is fully realizing this prophesy. We Israelis have become a nation like all nations, and the memory of the Holocaust causes us, from time to time, to behave like the worst of them. Only a few of us know this poem, but Israel as a whole lives it out.

In this war, politicians and generals have repeatedly quoted the words: “The boss has gone mad!” originally shouted by vegetable vendors in the market, in the sense of “The boss has gone crazy and is selling the tomatoes at a loss!” But in the course of time the jest has turned into a deadly doctrine that often appears in Israeli public discourse: in order to deter our enemies, we must behave like madmen, go on the rampage, kill and destroy mercilessly.

In this war, this has become political and military dogma: only if we kill “them” disproportionately, killing a thousand of “them” for ten of “ours”, will they understand that it’s not worth it to mess with us. It will be “seared into their consciousness” (a favorite Israeli phrase these days). After this, they will think twice before launching another Qassam rocket against us, even in response to what we do, whatever that may be.

It is impossible to understand the viciousness of this war without taking into account the historical background: the feeling of victimhood after all that has been done to the Jews throughout the ages, and the conviction that after the Holocaust, we have the right to do anything, absolutely anything, to defend ourselves, without any inhibitions due to law or morality.

WHEN THE killing and destruction in Gaza were at their height, something happened in faraway America that was not connected with the war, but was very much connected with it. The Israeli film “Waltz with Bashir” was awarded a prestigious prize. The media reported it with much joy and pride, but somehow carefully managed not to mention the subject of the film. That by itself was an interesting phenomenon: saluting the success of a film while ignoring its contents.

The subject of this outstanding film is one of the darkest chapters in our history: the Sabra and Shatila massacre. In the course of Lebanon War I, a Christian Lebanese militia carried out, under the auspices of the Israeli army, a heinous massacre of hundreds of helpless Palestinian refugees who were trapped in their camp, men, women, children and old people. The film describes this atrocity with meticulous accuracy, including our part in it.

All this was not even mentioned in the news about the award. At the festive ceremony, the director of the film did not avail himself of the opportunity to protest against the events in Gaza. It is hard to say how many women and children were killed while this ceremony was going on – but it is clear that the massacre in Gaza is much worse than that 1982 event, which moved 400 thousand Israelis to leave their homes and hold a spontaneous mass protest in Tel-Aviv. This time, only 10 thousand stood up to be counted.

The official Israeli Board of Inquiry that investigated the Sabra massacre found that the Israeli government bore “indirect responsibility” for the atrocity. Several senior officials and officers were suspended. One of them was the division commander, Amos Yaron. Not one of the other accused, from the Minister of Defense, Ariel Sharon, to the Chief of Staff, Rafael Eitan, spoke a word of regret, but Yaron did express remorse in a speech to his officers, and admitted: “Our sensitivities have been blunted”.

BLUNTED SENSITIVITIES are very evident in the Gaza War.

Lebanon War I lasted for 18 years and more than 500 of our soldiers died. The planners of Lebanon War II decided to avoid such a long war and such heavy Israeli casualties. They invented the “mad boss” principle: demolishing whole neighborhoods, devastating areas, destroying infrastructures. In 33 days of war, some 1000 Lebanese, almost all of them civilians, were killed – a record already broken in this war by the 17th day. Yet in that war our army suffered casualties on the ground, and public opinion, which in the beginning supported the war with the same enthusiasm as this time, changed rapidly.

The smoke from Lebanon War II is hanging over the Gaza war. Everybody in Israel swore to learn its lessons. And the main lesson was: not to risk the life of even one single soldier. A war without casualties (on our side). The method: to use the overwhelming firepower of our army to pulverize everything standing in its way and to kill everybody moving in the area. To kill not only the fighters on the other side, but every human being who might possibly turn out to harbor hostile intentions, even if they are obviously an ambulance attendant, a driver in a food convoy or a doctor saving lives. To destroy every building from which our troops could conceivably be shot at – even a school full of refugees, the sick and the wounded. To bomb and shell whole neighborhoods, buildings, mosques, schools, UN food convoys, even ruins under which the injured are buried.

The media devoted several hours to the fall of a Qassam missile on a home in Ashkelon, in which three residents suffered from shock, and did not waste many words on the forty women and children killed in a UN school, from which “we were shot at” – an assertion that was quickly exposed as a blatant lie.

The firepower was also used to sow terror – shelling everything from a hospital to a vast UN food depot, from a press vantage point to the mosques. The standard pretext: “we were shot at from there”.

This would have been impossible, had not the whole country been infected with blunted sensitivities. People are no longer shocked by the sight of a mutilated baby, nor by children left for days with the corpse of their mother, because the army did not let them leave their ruined home. It seems that almost nobody cares anymore: not the soldiers, not the pilots, not the media people, not the politicians, not the generals. A moral insanity, whose primary exponent is Ehud Barak. Though even he may be upstaged by Tzipi Livni, who smiled while talking about the ghastly events.

Even Heinrich Heine could not have imagined that.

THE LAST DAYS were dominated by the “Obama effect”.

We are on board an airplane, and suddenly a huge black mountain appears out of the clouds. In the cockpit, panic breaks out: How to avoid a collision?

The planners of the war chose the timing with care: during the holidays, when everybody was on vacation, and while President Bush was still around. But they somehow forgot to take into consideration a fateful date: next Tuesday Barack Obama will enter the White House.

This date is now casting a huge shadow on events. The Israeli Barak understands that if the American Barack gets angry, that would mean disaster. Conclusion: the horrors of Gaza must stop before the inauguration. This week that determined all political and military decisions. Not “the number of rockets”, not “victory”, not “breaking Hamas”.

WHEN THERE is a ceasefire, the first question will be: Who won?

In Israel, all the talk is about the “picture of victory” – not victory itself, but the “picture”. That is essential, in order to convince the Israeli public that the whole business has been worthwhile. At this moment, all the thousands of media people, to the very last one, have been mobilized to paint such a “picture”. The other side, of course, will paint a different one.

The Israeli leaders will boast of two “achievements”: the end of the rockets and the sealing of the Gaza-Egypt border (the co-called “Philadelphi route”. Dubious achievements: the launching of the Qassams could have been prevented without a murderous war, if our government had been ready to negotiate with Hamas after they won the Palestinian elections. The tunnels under the Egyptian border would not have been dug in the first place, if our government had not imposed the deadly blockade on the Strip.

But the main achievement of the war planners lies in the very barbarity of their plan: the atrocities will have, in their view, a deterrent effect that will hold for a long time.

Hamas, on the other side, will assert that their survival in the face of the mighty Israeli war machine, a tiny David against a giant Goliath, is by itself a huge victory. According to the classic military definition, the winner in a battle is the army that remains on the battlefield when it’s over. Hamas remains. The Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip still stands, in spite of all the efforts to eliminate it. That is a significant achievement.

Hamas will also point out that the Israeli army was not eager to enter the Palestinian towns, in which their fighters were entrenched. And indeed: the army told the government that the conquest of Gaza city could cost the lives of about 200 soldiers, and no politician was ready for that on the eve of elections.

The very fact that a guerrilla force of a few thousand lightly armed fighters held out for long weeks against one of the world’s mightiest armies with enormous firepower, will look to millions of Palestinians and other Arabs and Muslims, and not only to them, like an unqualified victory.

In the end, an agreement will be concluded that will include the obvious terms. No country can tolerate its inhabitants being exposed to rocket fire from beyond the border, and no population can tolerate a choking blockade. Therefore (1) Hamas will have to give up the launching of missiles, (2) Israel will have to open wide the crossings between the Gaza Strip and the outside world, and (3) the entry of arms into the Strip will be stopped (as far as possible), as demanded by Israel. All this could have happened without war, if our government had not boycotted Hamas.

HOWEVER, THE worst results of this war are still invisible and will make themselves felt only in years to come: Israel has imprinted on world consciousness a terrible image of itself. Billions of people have seen us as a blood-dripping monster. They will never again see Israel as a state that seeks justice, progress and peace. The American Declaration of Independence speaks with approval of “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind”. That is a wise principle.

Even worse is the impact on hundreds of millions of Arabs around us: not only will they see the Hamas fighters as the heroes of the Arab nation, but they will also see their own regimes in their nakedness: cringing, ignominious, corrupt and treacherous.

The Arab defeat in the 1948 war brought in its wake the fall of almost all the existing Arab regimes and the ascent of a new generation of nationalist leaders, exemplified by Gamal Abd-al-Nasser. The 2009 war may bring about the fall of the current crop of Arab regimes and the ascent of a new generation of leaders – Islamic fundamentalists who hate Israel and all the West..

In coming years it will become apparent that this war was sheer madness. The boss has indeed gone mad – in the original sense of the word.

Who calls the shots in America?

2009-01-21T13:06:29+01:00

BY: BRIAN CLOUGHLEY

“Peace for all children,” said Obama. But does he include Palestinian children? Will he continue to stand with Israel, the country that has laid waste a land and murdered or maimed hundreds?

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt were pretty close, politically and personally. They led the fight against fascism in the early 1940s, and although they had their disagreements they got on well. They were both blunt in their views, but there was no doubt who was the more powerful: Roosevelt called the shots, although Churchill had a lot of influence on him. But it would have been unthinkable for Churchill to behave in the way that the present (though not for long) prime minister of Israel did on January 8 with the (now mercifully departed) president of the United States.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, who has been forced to stand down because of allegations of corruption, telephoned George W Bush to make the latter alter his orders to his secretary of state to support a resolution in the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The barely believable transcript of Olmert’s boasting of his success is on public record.

He said: “I [Olmert] spoke with him [Bush]; I told him: You can’t vote for this proposal. He said: listen, I don’t know, I didn’t see, don’t know what it says. I told him: I know, and you can’t vote for it! He then instructed the secretary of state, and she did not vote for it.”

There is no other person in the world who could say such words to a president of the United States. And will Olmert’s successor be able to speak with Bush’s successor in the same way and with similar results?

The next Israeli prime minister could be Tzipi Livni or Binyamin Netanyahu, both steel-minded sadists and dedicated haters of Palestinians and Arabs in general. Will they be able to call President Obama to suggest forcefully that he alter the voting intention of the United States of America at the UN Security Council? And what would he do if they did?

Given the commitment to Israel of Mr Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, as was obvious in their grovelling speeches last year to the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which apparently runs American politics, there is no guarantee that either of them will utter a word in criticism of Israel.

One thing is certain: the US Congress is going to continue its unconditional support for Israel, no matter what war crimes are committed by its disgusting thugs-in-uniform. The politicians need the money, after all, which they get through political action committees, which are generously funded by American Jews. And they are scared to political death by the threat that pro-Israel agencies will destroy their careers if they dare say a word against Israel.

So the US House of Representatives rushed to praise Israel and endorse its merciless airstrikes and committed America to a motion “recognising Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States’ strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

Few Americans know about the hideous barbarity in Gaza, because their networks and newspapers rarely carry pictures of disfigured blood-splashed children who have been killed, maimed or orphaned by the Israelis. But elsewhere we have access to TV channels and newspapers that are very different from the pliant pro-Zion patsies of the major news outlets in the US. (The New York Times did not print Olmert’s orders to Bush. Surprise, surprise.)

And if US TV channels carried pictures like the ones we see, there would be such outbursts of horror and indignation that even the US Congress might be forced to condemn the Israeli fascists for their barbarity. But the all-powerful Israel lobby makes sure that little of the sort will appear.

Only five honourable members of the House voted against unconditional support for Israeli killing of Palestinians, and one was Representative Dennis Kucinich who put forward the case for their vote when he said: “In Gaza, the United Nations gave the Israeli army the coordinates of a UN school, and the school was then hit by Israeli tank fire, killing about 40. The UN put flags on emergency vehicles, coordinating the movements of those vehicles with the Israeli military, and the vehicles came under attack, killing emergency workers. The Israeli army evacuated 100 Palestinians to shelter, and then bombed the shelter, killing 30 people.”

Blunt stuff, but it cut no ice with the 390 members of the House who voted to encourage Israel to continue its killing.

The Israelis have killed 1300 Palestinians, and the UN reports that at least 700 of these deaths were civilians, and that half of these were women and children. One million of Gaza’s 1.5 million people have no electricity, and about 750,000 are without water. They are living in conditions of appalling squalor and fear, with US-supplied helicopter gunships and F-16s having destroyed their houses and schools and killed their children. Yet America voted for Israel. And the president of the United States jumped to obey the Israeli prime minister.

Will there be any change under Obama and Clinton?

A year ago, Hillary Clinton told AIPAC: “we stand with Israel because of our shared values and our shared belief in the dignity of men and women and the right to live without fear or oppression.”

Last June Barack Obama told AIPAC: “Now is the time to be vigilant in facing down every foe, just as we move forward in seeking a future of peace for the children of Israel, and for all children. Now is the time to stand by Israel.”

“Peace for all children,” said Obama. But does he include Palestinian children? Will he continue to stand with Israel, the country that has laid waste a land and murdered or maimed hundreds?

If he does, the question must be: who calls the foreign policy shots in America?

Yidnfragen?

2009-01-13T01:17:40+01:00

While I don't agree with everything it says, this piece on the ethics (moral, religious, and otherwise) of conflating Judaism with unquestioned support of every action Israel takes is worth a read. Israelis question, debate, and even satirize their government's and military's decisions; why can't an American Jewish man or woman do the same without being labeled "self-hating"? It would be blatantly ridiculous to expect an American to unquestioningly accept all the United States' government's and military's decision, so ... I've expressed concerns before about an apparent waning of our rich intellectual tradition and why we need to be able to ask questions and discuss them openly.

”Holocaust” in the Middle East?

2009-01-02T12:49:00+01:00

400 people were killed in Gaza in Palestine by the air raid from Israel.

Aren't they the people who experienced genocide like that? Why are they making this place like Ghetto or Auschwitz?

Very few Jews in Israel overlap their anscestry experience with Palestineans. That is why Iranian president ran denial campaign of holocaust because he thought those who experience such genocide would not have done similar things.

Well, holocaust and airstrikes on Gaza may be two different things.

The below films includes holocaust memorial museum in Berlin. The thumnail picture is photos of Jews exhibited in the museum. (Japanese version only). First scene is holocaust memorial monuments, stone wave, and memorial for gays, and inside museum under the stone wave.

Those scenes were followed by famous gate, parliament building, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, Krakow scenes, hotel room in Krakow, and schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna.

The bottom one is scenes from Auschwitz. Both of them were filmed in last summer, July 2008. So sad!

World's most unnecessary use of DNA-match technology

2008-10-03T18:40:00+02:00

Via Jewlicious: a Tel Aviv suburb is using DNA to fight dog poop. Dog owners are being asked to take their dogs to vets who will then submit saliva samples and create a municipal dog DNA database. Then, DNA from un-picked-up dog poop can be matched to dogs and offending owners. I am waiting for "Law and Order: Israeli Dog Poop Squad."

Haredi violence against women in Israel

2008-10-02T14:06:00+02:00

From The Guardian: Some Haredim in Israel are extremely vocal (and physical) about women following their sect's specific moral and dress codes. For example:

"Signs warning women not to enter if they are wearing trousers, short sleeves or a skirt above the knees, hang in the neighbourhood. One is affixed outside Kreus's two-room house where he lives with his wife and 11 children. 'Every week there's a complaint about the way women dress,' said Kreus.Extraordinarily, he admitted to slashing the tyres of women who have driven into the neighbourhood who, he said, were indecently dressed. 'There was a mess with the police,' he said. 'Now I'm trying new creative methods, not using violence. Now I make a small hole in their tyres and the air deflates slowly. I'm not destroying their car.'"

The article doesn't do enough to explain that this is one specific sect and that not all Orthodox (and not all ultra-Orthodox, even) Jews engage in these disgusting acts, but, yes, the sect is all-too-vocal about the way secular and slightly-less-observant Israeli women dress:

"He maintained that separation was necessary beyond the boundaries of the neighbourhood. 'Having secular people on the buses is a problem. They go like animals, without clothes. Non-religious girls don't dress properly. They encourage me to sin,' he said.With the demographics skewed in their favour, government authorities are acquiescing to the growing demands of the ultra-orthodox. The transport ministry, which regulates and funds bus transport through private companies, has allowed operators to provide 'kosher' or 'pure' routes, where women are required to sit at the back and cannot board unless appropriately dressed.More than a dozen women have filed complaints after being verbally or physically attacked on the buses. 'Sometimes it's an official group but often it's one or two men who start to complain and the other men follow,' said the Israel Religious Action Centre's legal director, Einat Hurvitz. 'The drivers allow them to intimidate the women.' Haredi women also participated in the bullying."

In Israel, these small groups have a (rather loud) political voice, which is one reason why forming coalitions in the Knesset can be so difficult.

Reading material: Jews and Power

2008-06-01T21:04:45+02:00

In Jews and Power, Ruth Wisse divides her exploration of Jews' relationship to power into three interconnected time periods: first, the Biblical era through the European Renaissance; then, the Enlightenment, which brings about liberal democracies that permit Jews to become citizens but unintentionally lead to the rise of pogroms; and finally, the founding of Israel and Israel's development as a military power in the face of Arab challenges to the country's sovereignty. I thought that she offered a number of interesting arguments that complicated the Judaism/Jewish ethnicity/power triangle in Parts 1 and 2; unfortunately, she did not seem to do enough to complicate this relationship in Part 3. Early on, Wisse notes that Jews' relationship to political power as laid out by the Bible has never been entirely uncomplicated, especially in comparison to the other Abrahamic religions. Writing that "Christian countries may have fought in the name of God, but they did not contemplate fighting by the rules of their savior" (15), she explains why there is no such thing as 'ethnic' Christianity, while the Jews, whose beliefs required them to always follow Torah law to the letter, seemed to constitute their own country-less nation regardless of where they lived. For the Islamic people, there was a stronger perceived relationship between political power and religion because the prophet Muhammad was clearly portrayed as a warrior, religious leader, and political leader who organized his people on both the battlefield and in the city. Moses, meanwhile, was a prophet who gave the people Israel a set of laws but was not involved in actively enforcing them. Wisse does complicate the present-day issue of Israel-Palestine relations, finding that the Jews mistakenly expected that possessing liberal democratic sovereignty would effectively mean the end of anti-Semitism. She references the mid-twentieth-century Jewish fantasy embodied in the character of Reschid Bey in Theodor Herzl's Altneuland; the character, an "Arab created in the image of a Jew" (165), is grateful that the Jews rescued the Arabs from a life of poverty. What actually happens in the decades after the founding of the state of Israel is that because of the Arab resentment that utopians like Herzl should have predicted, the Jewish state's political power must instead be supplanted by its military power. Unfortunately, Wisse doesn't do enough (in my view) to critique this form of military power, constructing her argument so that it would seem that militarism was the only way for Israel to go. She's seemingly not bothered by Golda Meir's statement to Anwar Sadat: "We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours" (156); I thought that the extremely disconcerting implications behind this statement would have been worth further exploration. All in all, Jews and Power offers a well-written political history of the Jewish people, with some interesting insights into the ways in which the advent of liberal democracy led to both new freedoms and new forms of anti-Semitism. Ultimately, however, it does not do enough to question all forms of violence (especially that of the 'eye for an eye' variety) and to suggest that there might be a yet-to-be-discovered "middle ground" in terms of Israeli politics.

Well, what do you know ...

2008-04-28T15:40:00+02:00

Jews and Power: A Nextbook Festival of Ideas, May 18th in NYC.I plan to attend the Culture, Taste, and Power and Authority and Revolt panels, as long as I can get in (it's first come, first served). This definitely sounds like an exciting event. ::breathes fresh air::

Jet Lag

2008-03-28T18:48:09+01:00

Jet lag

Back in New York.

Every time I fly I feel like such an international success story or something, as if I do this all the time and am quite used to it by now and I loathe those overly excited Israeli cry babies who act as if this is the first time they are flying and everyone should be extra nice to them. I always thank everybody and try to be extra polite. I guess it’s just another way of acting all provincial.

Right now time measures in a different way. I took the lap top into the city, and I forgot the charger so now time measures by the length of the battery life. After trying, in vain, to connect to some Wifi connection in Starbucks and finished writing an e-mail I can’t really send to my family in Israel, I have 14 minutes (19%) to finish this.

Time bends, it seem, especially when traveling, somehow the distance multiply the time or vice versa and the distance between New York and Israel effected also the perception of time. The weirdest thing about Israel was how unweird it was to be there, how familiar everything was. The strangest thing about New York is its unfamiliarity. In the taxi, on the way to our apartment, l look at the buildings, the trees, the empire state and the Williamsburg bridge with the eye of a tourist, and with the eyes of a resident and with my own eyes. And it’s so confusing I just want to close my eyes and disappear.

I don’t know why, but I have the feeling as if this sensation, of calling 2 places home is unique to me, as if it’s totally unexplainable and ununderstoodable to anyone aside of myself, as if the finer points of this sensation are so alien, so against all human experience that there’s no word for it. Which is funny, because it’s just not true, maybe the reason I feel like it’s so alien is that it’s so new to me. Maybe it’s so foreign to my definition of what home is that I can’t really place it within my realm of experience and notions.

We sit in that taxi and we talk, he missed me so much, and I missed him, of course, but it’s different living in our home without me as opposed to being somewhere else. He’s so beautiful, that always catch me by surprise and the way our apartment smells like him, everywhere. We talk, and I mention how different it was being in Israel, how much, even after a year and a half of New York living, it still feels more like home. And I see him cringe and hurt for that, as if it’s some competition he needs to win, a war waged against a whole country for my heart.

It’s odd how I can mark this specific date of making choices, a harsh line between past and future, and still, to feel like I’m stuck on that line, somewhere on the air between 2 continents and 2 different lives.

4 minutes and 6% of battery left, I get one of those “please save your files or you might lose your work” massages on the bottom of the screen. Trying to ignore the bad Starbucks music, on the table behind me a mother and a daughter speaks in Hebrew, I turn to look, they have H&M and Filline Basement bags, the daughter have a bag I saw the other day in a store window in King George street. They talk about shopping, I think, it’s hard to follow, over the sound of other conversations and the music. They look at a small map of Manhattan, the laminated one I used to carry around when I just moved here.

I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worst.

Terminal 02

2008-03-28T03:33:01+01:00

I'm in Zürich's airport. It's beautiful, it looks like the way airport would look like in movies, rather then the way they actually look in reality. all steal and glass and gray concrete and black leather couches. The large windows are open to a forest and a snowy mountain and a airplanes. I've slept in the plane, though badly, so I'm tired and cranky and feel very exposed in an old dirty sweatshirt and a pair of jeans I've worn basically every day in the past 2 and a half weeks.

It's strange to be here, so far from everything I know. I'm hungry, I think about the last meal I had, Sushi in a cheap tiny restaurant on Ben-Yehuda st. and Ben Gurion ave. Me and my sister laughing at the size of their bathroom and talk, what about really? I can't remember now. Just stuff, and the amount of comfortableness I felt. Like I know everything, like I can't embarrass myself in Tel Aviv, can't do the wrong thing cause I understand the rules and how it works.

I sit on one of those airport cafes, an open space next to those huge windows, around me, two French business man are showing each other funny YouTube clips and laugh, a German blond couple are trying to talk quietly while still keeping an eye on the baby. A bald man browsing a paper notebook while his wife dropping off duty free bags, a Muslim woman with a trolley suitcase and an orange and pink floral headdress is chewing gum while her middle aged husband looks at the menu.

I'm trying to connect to the internet, but fail, I might or might not payed for it, but still I can't seem to be able to log on, I'm too embarrassed to ask anyone, and lifting my head I notice that the other laptop user I saw before already left for his flight. I eat a bad and over priced ham and cheese bagel. The prices on the menu are in Swiss Franks, so I'm not even sure how much it costs, I leave a 20$ bill and get change in strange beautiful coins I've never seen before.

The trip to Israel, now, after a night of very little sleep, feels so far away, and NY feels even farther. Airport always feels as if you spend all your life there, even if it's just for a couple of hours.

Terminal

2008-03-26T04:02:00+01:00

It's almost 5:00 AM and I'm so tired, sitting at gate B8 in Terminal 3 in the Ben Gurion airport in Israel.

I'm really tired and restless, I want to be on the plane already, to be moving, in transit. The past couple of weeks were so busy and so crazy, it feels as if this is the first time I'm resting, sitting, and I don't really want to.

It was so packed and busy, and happy and sad and very emotional, I'm not quite sure what went on, a lot of beginings and no endings, threads of stories and moments and parts of conversations and places rather then a linear sensible journy.

I'm sad to leave Israel, I can't wait to get home.

Seeking Inspiration? Look Elsewhere

2007-12-18T02:00:00+01:00

I could have gone to Israel for my birthday this year, but comp-exam-exhaustion made that not-so-feasible. For now, I will share some of my favorite Wacky Holy Land Photos:In the spirit of the season: SANTA in a flea market booth.Near the Western Wall: cat eating a potato chip. One of several photos in my "Plastic Spoons in Roman Ruins" series.This one captions itself, no?The goat wants to know if you need cash."HaGadol Kova" = The Big Hat. You know, in case anyone ever asks you what they call the Whopper in Israel.All right, one non-wacky one. Sunset on the Mediterranean Sea, May 2006.

Israeli high-tech companies raised $1.62 billion in 2006 - highest in 5 years

2007-01-22T17:10:00+01:00

402 Israeli high-tech companies raised $1.62 billion from local and foreign venture investors in 2006, according to IVC Research summery. The capital raised by Israeli startups last year was the highest in 5 years and 21% above the $1.34 billion raised by 378 companies in 2005.

105 Israeli high-tech companies raised $477 million in the fourth quarter 2006, a 25% increase from the $381 million raised by 87 companies in the third quarter and an 80% jump from the $264 million raised in Q4 2005.

In 2006, Israeli venture capital funds invested $651 million in Israeli high-tech companies, about equal to investments made in 2005 ($655 million) and 2004 ($665 million). The Israeli VC share of the total amount invested in Israeli technology companies was 40%, compared to an average of 43% in the previous 7 years and 49% in 2005.

Israeli venture capital funds invested $60 million in foreign companies during 2006, compared to $95 million in 2005 and $107 million in 2004. Two investment, totaling $10 million, of the 33 investments were First investments, and the remainder were Follow-on.

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Numbers

2006-07-20T12:25:56+02:00

9 days - This war's going on for up until today.6 days - Till I move to New York to live with the man I love, till my life change entirely and nothing stay the same.13 days - anxiety attack had been going on, even though I feel a little better now, and yesterday I didn't even have to take any pills.3 major arteries in my mother's heart, the test showed that everything is fine, she's still weak but she's doing better.3 soldiers that was capture and gave the excuse to start this war.100 - the max amount of Israeli air force vessels in the air in one given moment.4 years and 7 months minus a week - the amount of time I've been working in the advertising agency I work for. 6 hours - To work in this office more. Today's my last day.3 people are still working here that worked here before I did, 7 more came after me, 9 people quite or got fired. 2 weddings of office members I attended, 1 Bar Mizva to another employee son.5,5000 shekels after tax - My beginner salary, which is still my salary to this day, cause I handle finance so badly and wouldn't ask for a raise.2,000$ in cash and another 30,000 Shekels in saving account about to go into my checking account - the amount of money I have right now and that's supposed to last till I find a job in New York.Over 300 killed in Lebanon since the war started, About 40 in Israel.20 tons bomb dropped on a single building where the Hissbula generals where supposed to be staying.2 sisters, 1 mom, one dad, 2 grandparents, 4 aunts and 4 uncles, 20 cousins, 9 good friends, a lot of acquaintances that I'm leaving behind.1/2 of an apartment I own with my ex who left me just a day or two before i started writing this blog, an event I never thought I will recuperate from.10 people I had sex with since then.1 big love.50% of the hisbulla force was already destroyed, according to the Israeli minister of transportation.100 missiles or so had been shot on Israel every day since this started. The ones hitting farthest off from the border were in Haifa and Nazarat, about 55 km from the border.3 and 7 - the ages of the two kids who were killed when a missile fall on them while playing soccer in Nazarat yesterday.400 or so books, some sent to New York, some going to my parents new house, most distribute between friends.5 more errands to run, maybe more I need to check the list.0.5 mg. alporex pillsmaybe 5 Kilo lost in the part 2 weeks2 tears I cried today, for the first time in a couple of weeks, over this blog: http://mazenkerblog.blogspot.com/7 visits to the same dental hygienist and dentist since i moved to Tel aviv, the last one took place today, I scheduled another one for 6 months time, I'm not quite sure why. 3 different gynecologists (was never happy with any of them) 5 times blood tests, 2 HIV tests (both came negative) 1 big depression that took 3 years to get out of, 1 therapist, 1 psychiatrist, 1 abortion.5 different apartments in 7 years.6 vacation, one to Turkey, 2 to Greece, 2 to sinai, one to New York.A million fears.1 big sadness

Good Grief

2006-07-19T01:03:00+02:00

I got this in my email.

24th MEU helps 64 Americans evacuate Lebanon

By Jeff Schogol and Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit evacuated 43 Americans from Lebanon on Monday as part of ongoing evacuation efforts, officials said.

Currently, there are three CH-53 Super-Stallion helicopters in Cyprus ferrying U.S. citizens out of Lebanon with more such helicopters expected to arrive Tuesday, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Additionally, the Navy is sending the destroyer USS Gonzalez to escort a Greek commercial ship contracted to ferry U.S. citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus, Whitman said.

The Greek ship is capable of transporting 750 passengers at one time, and will be available for evacuation efforts starting Tuesday, he said.

Evacuation efforts began Sunday when two CH-53 helicopters with the 24th MEU flew from Jordan to Beirut to take 21 American personnel to Cyprus, according to the Marine Corps.

A team of more than 100 Marines landed in Cyprus “to prepare for Sunday’s mission and lay the groundwork for follow-on operations, should they be needed,” a 24th MEU news release says.

Composed of 2,200 Marines and sailors, the 24th MEU is currently sailing with the USS Iwo Jima’s three-ship strike group, which is now in Jordan, having completed exercises with the Jordanian military, officials said.

The three ships in the MEU are preparing to get under way to head north to the Suez Canal should they be called in at the request of the State Department, a Defense official said on Monday.

Whitman said the Defense Department has other assets available to do the job.

“Right now we are still working with the State Department and looking at what the requirements will be in assisting with the departure of American citizens from Lebanon,” said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman for 5th Fleet.

According to Marine officials, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman decided on Saturday to formally ask the military for assistance in moving the U.S. citizens out of harm’s way.

Israeli airstrikes have closed the Beirut airport and a naval blockade has stopped many ships from leaving. Cyprus is about an hour’s flight west of Lebanon; both are popular tourist destinations. State Department officials have said that approximately 8,000 Americans have informed the department they are living or working in Lebanon.

On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut advised Americans in Lebanon that those who wanted to leave would have to pay for their transportation out of the country.

“For the portion of the trip directly handled by the U.S. Government, Americans will be asked to sign a promissory note and will be billed at a later date,” the July 15 advisory says.

This is standard operation procedure, a State Department official said Monday.

The official said she did not know how much each evacuee would have to pay but added, “No one will be turned away because they cannot produce funds.”

Can you beileve that shit? Americans have to actually pay for their evacuation? How low can Bush get? This administration gets more repulsive as time goes by.

Well, well....

2006-07-18T18:51:00+02:00

this gets stranger and stranger. Apparently the Israeli government didn't bother to inform their citizens that they were bombing the piss out of the Lebanese and the Israelis were totally taken by surprise. Apparently they are protesting the attack on Lebanon and one of the main protesters is Olmert's daughter.

Dire situation in Lebanon

2006-07-18T05:25:00+02:00

ADDABBAOUSIYEH (northern Lebanese border), Jul 16 (IPS) - People fleeing the bombing of Lebanon say the Israelis are targeting civilian neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, and not just Hezbollah centres.

The bombing has killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians so far.

Several border points between Syria and Lebanon are being deluged with refugees. Lebanon has a long border with Syria towards its south, east and north. The refugees include both Lebanese and tourists.

"Everything is being bombed," a teacher from the United States who was on vacation in Beirut told IPS. "It's terror. We've literally been terrorised." (MORE)

So here we have it...

2006-07-17T01:54:00+02:00

Okay, let me get this straight. The Hezbollah have kidnapped a couple of Israeli soldiers for the return of Arab political prisoners or some shit like that. So Israel goes and bombs a damn international airport with people from all over the world commuting there. People boarding planes, getting off planes, and spending a layover in an airport. And Israel bombs it. Then to make matters worse, tourists try to get the hell out of there by driving down a highway that gets you into Syria and Israel bombs that too. Then Israel bombs a power plant cutting out electricity in Beirut and southern Lebanon so people can't turn on the damn news or get on the Internet and find out what the hell is happening. Then Israel bombs apartment buildings and bombs the civil defense building which is located next door to a hospital. I'm surprised those nuts didn't bomb the hospital too. Maybe on the next go around. Then Israel bombs the Hezbollah headquarters and claims it's after the Hezbollah. My question is why they didn't bomb the Hezbollah headquarters to begin with.

I'll tell you why. Because Israel isn't after the Hezbollah. They endangered the lives of tourists and foreigners who were in Lebanon because they wanted to bomb the shit out of Lebanon. Who gives a damn who is there. There were 25,000 Americans in Lebanon. I wonder how many Americans and people of other nationalities died or were wounded by Israel. Going after the Hezbollah my ass. And imagine Bush's reaction. "Israel has the right to defend itself." By bombing a fucking international airport? Endangering the lives of 25,000 Americans? You fucking retard. Defending my ass. Now they've blown up the bridges to get you into Cyprus. Anyone in Lebanon is a sitting duck at this point.

Now there are reports that Israel used DU in Lebanon. Guess what you Israeli morons? That DU dust is going to blow back into your country and you will suffer the consequences of breathing that dust into your lungs. That poison gas you're using in Lebanon? You'll breathe it in too when it blows back into Israel. How damn moronic can you get? Using radioactive munitions right next door to where you live. I find that a total hoot. Why don't you just set off some nuclear bombs so you can die in the fallout. Well, you people are probably that fucking insane that you would.

And people whine about the Arabs? And how crazy they are? I think Israel has them beat by a mile.

The World in Summary

2005-01-20T02:35:00+01:00

India and Israel strengthen military ties.Red China allows citizen to use and read TypePad blogs.Vietnam applauds U.S. trade relations, but complains about rules regarding catfish-dumping.Dozens die in another Salafist-Baathist terror bombing.There is a growing, interconnected world that peacefully pursues trade, freedom, and democracy. Not everyone is at the same place, but everyone is on the right track.While the tribal neo-Klansmen of Iraq kill people to drive out the world. To [re]impose a hateful tyranny on the masses who despire them.We are fighting for the free world -- for the globalized world. Our enemies fight against it.