I've been a busy bee these past few days.
I had a fairly large exam today and handed in the paper I stayed up all night doing (same course, BTW). If I never touch this material again it will be too soon.

In two weeks the second semester exam season is to commence.
*glomps*

Monday and Tuesday there was a bunch of activity on campus planned and arranged by the Student Coalition (with your truly being one part of the planning and arranging team. Yes, I'm touting my own horn) regarding the Occupation, as June marked 41 years of the Occupation in Gaza and the West Bank).

On Monday we arranged an open discussion regarding the One State Solution and the Two State solution. It was great, as a whole bunch of opinions were heard and discussed.
The majority were Leftists, obviously - though the posters and fliers were worded to not be too demagogic or partial, we wanted the Mainstream student body to come a listen - of which there a few but out of thirty or so people that quickly dwindled to twenty to fifteen there weren't a whole lot of Liberals, though those that were there spiced things us a bit.There were no outright Rightists, as they know us and hate us... that's okay, we don't like them much either.

On Tuesday we had a myth busting session; an ICAHD activist gave a hugely informative lecture about the population control that goes on in the West Bank (specifically East Jerusalem, which is a world in and of itself within the Occupation discourse) under the guise of Security and how that word is used as a motivation for a whole slew of attacks against civilians in the West Bank (these attacks include House Demolitions, "Check Points", the Separation Wall etc. etc.).
After the ensuing discussion and break we had MBC reporter Qasem Hatib who came to talk to us about the "No Palestinian Partner" myth and discourse. We discussed how that particular discourse became prevalent in the Barak and Camp David years (and following) and how it has been used since then as a political tool by Israel to keep the status quo (not what he said, but what I gleaned from his very cynical journalistic words - such a pessimist, made us idealists all sad... kidding, I don't think I've ever met a bigger bunch of cynics than those in the Coalition).

Very successful half week so far, I'd say.

So it was a good, if stressful week on campus.
Wednesday was a bad day for Jerusalem.
A man went on a killing spree on a tractor. ( Read more about it, there is a plethora of links to be found behind )

To this kind of News I can only go *snort*.
No, seriously.
I snorted so hard when I read this that I scared my cat.

This gem from Madam Secretary Rice:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Jewish settlement building "a problem" on Saturday and said Israel had not done enough to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"Look, it's a problem and I think it's a problem that we're going to address with the Israelis," Rice said of recent Israeli settlement construction announcements as she flew to Tel Aviv on her sixth trip this year to try to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Annapolis was less than six months ago and the Settlement growth, which was supposed to cease and desist just continued. With an explicit governmental Carte Blanche I might add.

Eight years in which the only interest Uncle Sam had of this little Hell Hole was that of Israeli weapons capabilities (kudos to us in that regard) and deterrence capabilities with said weapons (we fucked that one up).
So while the Bush is limping around Europe like the lame duck that he is and sending Ms. Rice to run his dirty errands... which here are many and have been neglected.

I'm cynical.
I want this to work out.
I really, really do.
But when only now Hamas and Fatah are talking to each other.
When Hamas fires over fifty rockets into Israel and Israel is constantly retaliating which causes retaliation from Hamas.
There are so many other factors which are just too long to go into, because it's late in the day and I just get depressed when I think about it in a way that isn't in the back of my mind.

Fuck it.

In October 2000 there was a lynch. It was all over the News. It isn't easily forgotten, especially not with images as iconic as this.

It took me no time to find these links.
The only link I could find of this disgusting story, beyond the blogosphere, was in Ha'aretz weekend supplement (printed edition) in Hebrew. Today I got an RSS feed of the story translated into English. Unlike the Hebrew article, which has markup errors and is thus basically unreadable on-line, the English edition doesn't have pictures and I have not been able to find any other photos of the lynching. A group of dozens Jewish boys between the ages of 15-18 from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev assaulted and almost murdered two Palestinian teens from Shu'fat, which is just a stone throw away form that Jewish neighborhood.

The lynching took place on the 30th of April (yes, a month ago) and it was only brought to the media this past week.
What is even more disgusting is that the 30th of April this year was National Holocaust Memorial Day, obviously the date was not chosen for the hell of it, especially because Palestinians come to Pisgat Ze'ev Mall often enough for them to be familiar to Jewish population.

The article is a horrifying and illuminating read. I must be growing cynical in my old age as I was not surprised at all that something like this happened. The fact that I share with those "good Jewish boys" an iota of commonality is sickening.

Did I mention there was a book burning as well? Oh, and that Israel is the 4th largest arms dealer in the world.

I end this extremely depressing entry with the hope that someday lynches, burnings and profiteering through the suffering of others will be shocking and nauseating.

I am not shocked and nauseated that these things happen in the country in which I live.
That is the saddest thing of all.

I just got this notice from my Student Coalition for Action mailing list:
Controversial and noted Historian and critic of Zionism and the Israeli Occupation is the Territories was arrested at Ben-Gurion Air Port, he is now in the hands of the ministry of the interior and the שב"כ (Shin-Bet) and banned from entering Israel for the next ten years!

This is absolutely outrageous, creepy and Orwellian. Censorship and the detaining of civilians for their thoughts and opinions should not and cannot be tolerated!

I urge all of you, who value free speech and human fucking decency to write, email, fax and phone Israeli authorities and demand the immediate release of Dr. Finkelstein.

Israeli interior ministry
+972 2 670 1501
Fax: + 972 2 6701572
Email: SAR@moin.gov.il - Israel's ministery of the Interior
pniot@moin.gov.il
dover@moin.gov.il - the ministry's spoker
dover@moin.gov.il - in charge of "freedom of information"

Minister of Interior Mr. Meir SHEETRIT
Israeli Ministry of the Interior
2 Kaplan St., Qiryat Ben-Gurion
P.O. Box 6158, 91061 Jerusalem
Tel. +972-2-670-1411 / +972-2-629-4722
Fax: +972-2-670-1628

or

Mr. Meir SHEETRIT's numbers at the Knesset
Telephone 1: +972-2-640-8410
Telephone 2: +972-2- 640-8409
Fax: +972-2- 640-8920
Email: mshitrit@knesset.gov.il

In Israel:
Foreign Minister's office - sar@mfa.gov.il
Director General's office - mankal@mfa.gov.il
Public Relations - pniot@mfa.gov.il

Ministry Address:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
9 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd.
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91035
Tel. 972-2-5303111
Fax 972-2-5303367

From Democracy Now!:

Israel Arrests Outspoken Academic Norman Finkelstein
And the American academic Norman Finkelstein has been arrested and ordered deported from Israel. Finkelstein arrived in Tel Aviv earlier today on his way to the Occupied Territories. He was immediately detained and told he is banned from Israel for ten years. He’s expected to be deported tomorrow. Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Edited to Add: The Ministry will be closed through Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath. Thus, if you are in the US please call your congressman and senator NOW and advise them a Jewish American U.S. citizen is being denied access to Israel!!

If you are an Israeli start working the phones...this denial of entry is all being done in our name and that is unacceptable!

I'm tired.
I'm never taking a course that requires me to wake up at six AM.
Or alternately I could start going to sleep at reasonable hours...
But fuck that right?

But the fact that I'm tired won't stop me from reporting this shit, that went down in the beginning of last weekend and which may or may not be resolved.
It pissed me off royally.
Beyond the tragic and cruel nature of these invalidated conversions, it spotlights a grave and important matter about the relationship of religion and state in Israel.
That it is rotten.

I got into an argument about what is acceptable involvement of religious establishment in the state.
Personally, I think they can fuck off, since these establishments are chauvinistic, sexist and racist.

There is no civil marriage in Israel, the closest we have is common-law unions which were established so that "un-marriageable" couples could have legal standing.
Who are the "un-marriageable" you ask - they are members of the population that cannot get married through the Rabbanut. The system was initially built for couples who according to Halakha couldn't marry each other: Cohens and divorces mainly. But this also includes Mamzerim (bastards) who cannot marry through the Rabbanut, Jews cannot marry Muslims or Christians, nor can Muslims and Christians marry each other, there is no same-sex marriage either.
This, is of course easily solved by marrying elsewhere; Cyprus, Canada, the USA, Anywhere that allows foreign nationals to marry.

And after marriage (which brings great civil benefits) comes divorce (more and more these days and don't let anyone tell you otherwise).
It's a great invention, Jews are practical that way.
Of course it is the Husband that must grant the Wife the Get (divorce), she can "choose" whether to accept it or not. Not that the man would give a shit, all he needs in order to have a Halachikly legal family (while not divorced to his first wife) is something like a 100 signatures from 100 Rabbis and he can marry and have (halachicly)legal children - bigamy and polygamy are illegal in Israel - so he can ignore with impunity the pleas his Wife makes so that they can be rid of each other. There are sanctions, monetary usually, but go beg a Yeshivah Bochur to pay alimony when he can't sustain himself without a wife, or just a run of the mill asshole who doesn't want to pay alimony and that putting him in jail only postpones the writ of execution of whatever he owes his wife, his lawer and his children should he have any. The wife, due to all this, is now an Aguna - another side effect of the Rabbis revocation of the conversions - there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Agunot women in Israel.

My side of the argument was that we either take the anti-patriarchy hammer and bash the Rabbanut until nothing is left of that racist, sexist establishment, or have the state acknowledge the fact that there is more to Judaism than Orthodoxy so that that the pluralism we pretend to have in Israel have some basis in reality.

A mixture of reform and revolution - I'm more keen on rebuilding from the grassroots, but others kind of like the way things are... or at the very least don't mind the way things are; seeing as the privilege of being born Jewish has the added bonus that no one will be nosing around our private life and checking to see if we're actually being Jewish.

It makes me sick.

I've heard people say it takes time for these things to change, after all blacks in the USA only got civil rights in the 60's of the 20th century and the women only got the vote less than a hundred years ago.
Change is slow but it happens.

Yes, change is slow... when those in power have no incentive to change, when the atrocities that these establishments perpetrate don't touch their lives, then change can be slow.
When the status quo is just fine and dandy to The Man, then change can be slow.

Classical liberal* bullshit.

*No offense to any liberals who may be reading this.

I had this really good entry all thought out, with lots of examples and points and arguments. But all that has seeped out of my brain due to end-of-Semester stress.

See yesterday Army (most of them Air Force) officers traveled around schools all over the country in a joint project with the ministry of education. This project is part of the 60 years to Israel commemorations, celebrations and what not.
At one of the school in which some of these officers came to speak, a demo by New Profile in which they constructed a huge papier mache brain and proceeded to squirt at with soapy water. I thought it was really smart and funny.

I told about it to my brother and mother and was really blown away by their negative responses.
My brother said they were being stupid and my mother asked if the demonstrators don't ask themselves what they can do for Israel.

Ahem.

See, the officers were there to talk about values and meaning of Israeli citizenship and what it means to be a Jewish nation in Israel - according to what I read about the project wasn't about convincing hight school kids that it's better to serve that to evade (which has been, according to the media which is trying to ensue a moral panic, imo, on the rise for the past two years).
I personally think it's wrong for the army to be a presence in schools other to give an overview of the positions available in the IDF and for that to be in after school hours so that it doesn't take over academic times - but that's really optimistic.

I don't believe for a minute that all they spoke about yesterday were "the values of Israeli citizenship" - Army service since the conception of this country has been a formative part of Jewish Israeli Identity (Druze and Bedouin can volunteer for the draft, but it is not mandatory). I'm pretty convinced that they spoke about the fact that to be good citizens they should serve their country through the IDF, that in the IDF they will learn what it means to be a moral, ethical and good Israeli citizen.

I think it's been a long time since the IDF has participated in a War that was solely for the protection of its citizens. All the operations across the borders have been offensive since the 80's and all withdrawals have been unilateral, meaning no agreement was discussed with those whose territory we were leaving. Almost all the operations done on the civilian population in the West Bank (and once Gaza) are defended by saying it's in the name of security are excuses to control said population by fear and humiliation. The soldiers (boys and some girls of 18 and 19, commanded by 20-somethings) are scared and they have guns and they've been taught to hate that little girl in a hijab, or that teenage boy with hate for them in return.
Do I even need to mention the immorality of the collective punishment on Gaza?

A small aside about Gaza: I can talk about the fact that Hamas fires Qassams at innocent people in the West Negev and Sderot, but seeing as the government that is funding this oh so educational project gives less than a shit about those people being fired upon, the less said the better.

I was asked why I don't have sympathy for those soldiers who have to do those horrible things in the name of security. I do. I have a lot of sympathy towards them and the fact that they are serving in an Army that requires them to do such unethical things and that they are educated to view those who are not like them as less-than-human.
Those soldiers traumatize and in turn are traumatized as well.
I wrote about this phenomena not too long ago.
Those soldiers, my soldiers, are ordered to invade other peoples homes in the name of security. They sometimes take food and other electrical supplies from those homes.
Some of them remain silent about what they once they are discharged.
Some of them break through this silence.

I don't believe that the Army does what it is supposed to do and it is because of this that I criticize it, that I feel a reform within its system and the way we, as Israelis, view the function of the military in our lives.
The gun is never a sacred instrument... in Hebrew it is equivalent to male genitalia.
Maybe I'll give a feminist reading of the role of the IDF, it's been done before, but now I've said what I felt had to be said about how I feel about the Army entering schools and talking about civic "values" and "duties".

The Israeli government has given a temporary residency permit for a gay Palestinian man to live with his Israeli lover in Tel-Aviv. Due to threats on his life regarding his sexuality (and, no doubt, relationship with an Israeli).

The article mentions that according to Aswat director Rouda Morcos (a very charismatic speaker and clear voice in minority discourse), there have not been many reports of physical violence in the past few years which were motivated by homophobia and that often the Shabak threaten to out homosexual Palestinians if they don't collaborate.
The article.

I have no doubt that this Palestinian man gave information to the Shabak in exchange for a permit to enter Israel and I have no doubt that he was also threatened with his life because of his sexual orientation.
There are a lot (comparatively, obviously) of gay and lesbian Palestinians living within Israel. The only LGBT group, mentioned above, is based within Israel, in Haifa, which has a large Arab population in any event.

The various (and there is more than one) Arab cultures in Israel and Palestine have been oppressed and suppressed for so long, is it any wonder that queer Palestinians do what they can to leave those areas in which their sexual identity within that national identity are considered taboo?

I mean, women who desecrate the family honour for walking around in jeans or without a hijab or for being raped. The Army doesn't deal with this phenomenon within the West Bank, as far as I'm aware and the Israeli police at times there isn't much they can do for the girl who is threatened with murder, because there isn't any proof that there is a plan to kill her and more often than night the other women within the family participate in the ritualized killing.

This of course doesn't happen in a vacuum.
These are oppressed people within an oppressed segregated society. That doesn't mean that what goes on to those people is acceptable or even legitimate. It does, however, mean that no change in the promotion of women's rights or LGBT rights within Arab, Druze, Bedouin, Palestinian society can be made before any decent progress is made in the treatment they get from Israel as a legal and political body that defines their identity.

Israel, when it comes to LGBT rights isn't very backwards; openly gay men and women serve in the IDF with laws that protect them against homophobia, same-sex couples can register for common-law marriage (a system that allows legal rights for coupes that can't marry because of stupid rabbinical control over marriage laws, which include couples of different religions), they can adopt each other's biological child and very recently a law has passed that includes adoption of non-biological children.

The quality of life in Israel is better is many ways for Arabs who live within the Green Line - as citizens the right to education, the freedom of movement, free speech and everything is far greater than within Palestine. That isn't to say that the their lives are that much better, racism and White (Israeli style) supremacy are so culturally embedded it's disgusting, but there is equality under the law.

Excuse me this entry has gotten jumbled up and away from the point I was trying to make, which is this:
The Occupation oppresses a people, which in turn oppress minorities within that people, those twice or third-over oppressed people do what they can in order to leave the territories under Occupation in order to live more freely in the sovereign state which occupies the people with whose nationality they identify.
In short - it is Effed Up.

That's all.

Sorry to spam, but it's important.

Over the past days since the terrorist attack on the Yeshivah on Thursday, there have been countless articles, op-eds and News coverages regarding Mercaz Ha'Rav (which is the ideological cradle of religious-zionism) and calling for retaliation against the attack.

Today Knesset Spekaer Dalia Itzik mentioned what should be done:

The head of the yeshiva Rabbi Yaakov Shapira said "we must destroy the mourner's tent. This isn't normal. In any other place they would destroy it." Itzik replied "it is not a legal question at all. We must demolish the tent and the house."

In what place is it normal to (corporally) punish the family of a dead man, because he committed a crime.
The man is dead! He isn't going to be doing anything anymore.
Demolishing a house, a mourning tent is so unethical and immoral, not to mention the most counter-productive thing to do ever! Because us destroying more houses is going to create a better dialouge for peace.
I can see it now, huge headlines all over the papers: "Houses Ruined in the Name of Peace".
Yes, sacrifices have to be made.
And people need to be punished.

Collectively, of course.

I hope ICHAD are on this.

Al-Qaeda has kidnapped two Austrian tourists in North Africa.
But they have a very good reason.
Really!
It's in response to the IDF's action in Gaza... seriously.

Why are they only telling the world now, over a month after the fact?
Someone explain to me how kidnapping innocent people, from a country that has very little to do with either Israel, Palestine or Tunisia.

Never mind, I'll do it:
Hostages, using people of Very Western Country as leverage and showing that no one is spared from the conflict, obviously.
This isn't new.
But it's going to be a big pain in the international community's side. When these people were just missing, they were just that. Missing.
Now they need to be rescued.
Because they'll be murdered.

Lovely.

Oh and Israeli tabloids are calling Syria, Lebanon and Iran "Axis of Evil".
For fuck's sake! I know it's just tabloids, but they're freebies and it's read by thousands of commuters everyday on the trains (they're also given out at malls and large intersections - I'd forgotten but during the war in Lebanon, they were handed out at the entrance to the IDF HQ).
Why oh why do I do this to myself?!

Or not.
Depending if you find my little hell-hole interesting.

Racism you say? No, no! Can't be. A (Jewish) Member of Knesset threatening other (Arab) Members of Knesset with ethnic cleansing.
I'm shocked.
No, no I'm not
Though to be purely candid, this is part of Effie Eitam's regular rhetoric. And he is pretty upset about the fact that Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship (colloquially known as Israeli Arabs) are protesting the IDF's operations in Gaza - calling it War Time Treason.
*sigh* Because protesting military action is treason, but threatening with ethnic cleansing is just dandy.

Something slightly different: "Honour" Killings are more common than people would like to admit. Well, one of the more famous cases in Israel, involving the Abu-Ghanem family of Ramla (a Jewish-Arab mixed town in the Israeli Centre) have shown some progress: Today the murderer (who killed his sister for being "immodest") was sentenced for 16 years in prison.

Like the article says the major problem of this phenomena (in Israel, I wouldn't presume to know about other countries in which "honour" killings are prevalent) is that the Police don't take the problem seriously enough and show a whole lot of lenience towards the families in which this happens because it is considered an internal Hamula issue, that means it all stays in the Clan, in the family; more often than not, a girl who runs away to the police for protection because is sent back because, as I've said, the authorities send her back... let the Sheiks deal with her.

What makes the Abu-Ghanem case a special, and relatively famous, is the fact that the Mother (of the girl and her murderer, seeing as they were siblings) came forward last year.
I can only imagine the kind of will power it took to go to Israeli authorities and talk about the tragedy of nine dead woman, all killed by family members.
You gotta admire them for that and for trying to stop the cycle of women being disposed of like garbage.

And the Peace Talks will continue between Israel and the Palestinians, despite some shiftiness - sans Hamas of course who resumed their rocket firing (or at least didn't stop other groups from firing), no doubt Hamas will resume their own Qassam brigades in no time - their sense of self preservation leaves something to be desired... *sigh*.

Things are tense as you can probably imagine.
I'm not really good at putting my point across when it comes to things I'm passionate about, there are often times where my chronic foot-in-mouth disease becomes acute.

I always end up sounding so emotional and irrational and blubbery, as though those are bad things and make my arguments thinner. It's bloody irritating that the only times my views are even listened to is when I speak "logically", "unbiased" and "rational".
As though there's anything logical, unbiased and rational in the situation we're living in.

Yep rockets, sieges and disharmony... the balanced way of life. *sigh*

I think I give the impression, or I actually may be, a whole lot more moderate than other activists I'm in touch with.
I'm as anti-Occupation and pro-Human Rights as they come... but I can't deal with hypocrisy.
The hypocrisy of "Anarchists" who fight for the right of National Determination while saying that another kind Nationalism is wrong - "we only fight against the Occupation!" - yes, well that's all very nice isn't it, if your point of view is so narrow you can't see the wide spectrum of where you're standing.
Like I previously mentioned, I believe that since Jews have a homeland, Palestinians deserve the same thing.
Often when I mention this to the more anti-Zionist people I know (my kind of post-Zionism is too moderate for most of them, as I've said) and I ask them what will you do if there is no longer an Israel? Where will you go?
What does that matter? They reply.
A great deal - citizens of the world we all want to be, but to be rootless and disconnected from where we come, to be doomed to become "Wandering Jews" again... that kind of Cosmopolitanism kind of ended in disaster... more than once.

Maybe it's the memory of persecution, maybe it's just a sense of unfairness, but I was born here and this is the only home I know and I want it to be a better place for my Nephews, Niece and my next potential Nephews and Nieces and maybe even potential children.
To just give up and go? To abandon what's been built here, what's been accomplished and what can still be built and accomplished?
That seems like anathema to me.
I won't give up on being Israeli, because I want to have allies and friends (in Palestine and beyond) and not wander loosely in the world with only a memory.

And in a less wolly manner: my brother, that clever guy, if only he wrote his ideas (hint-hemlock_sholes-hint).
He has great suggestions for non-violent direct action which would really be constructive if people were made aware of how powerful they could be.
I'll definitely pass those ideas along to people who might actually be able to do something.

---

I wish I had time to write feminist comic book and sci-fi criticisms like I used to, but all I do now is read my articles for Uni and my News feeds and blogs.
Doesn't let my brain veg in a constructive manner.

I didn't write about this yesterday because I was all about ME, which is sometimes what this LJ is for.

This is "old News" by now, but Sderot and Kibbutzim of the Western Negev were bombarded yesterday with over 50 Qassam Rockets.
50 Qassam Rockets.
At least one person died and several other have been critically injured, maimed and traumatized.
The retaliation and in these cases it always a retaliation, was the usual IDF and IAF maneuvers.

What I find most interesting is that in the International News sites, the retaliation was written about first, giving the obvious impression that that the Qassam rockets were launched in retaliation to the military action done by Israel.

Such. Utter. Bullshit.

I'm a big talker and I'm all for talking with Hamas, but when the complete and utter disregard they show towards their own people by launching rockets that are designed to hurt my people, because my people have the Big Guns and on TeVi, Big Guns look much worse than little rockets despite the damage wrought by both.

The ones who suffer the most are the civilians on both sides of the border. It doesn't matter if they're Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Bedouin or Christian.

Hamas' goal isn't to liberate Palestine, it never was, it is to recreate the Caliphate and bring the Umma together and then go out on a Holy War against the West.
And like most of these kinds of groups (al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc.) they were created in order to fight the real enemies... the Communist or Marxist Identified groups - or in the case of the Taliban the Soviets themselves.

Old News? Ancient History?

Maybe, but it's certainly a way to see the interconnectedness of it all.
Until the USA decides that it no longer supports Nations that give money to Hamas and Hizbulla (and it's not just Iran, far from it) and that "spreading Democracy" is not the way to go, but co-operation and actual fucking communication; you can bet that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict will continue.

I don't.
( Ashkenazi: Public must also prepare for next war (for the link-phobic) )

War Mongers and Hawks are nothing new in Israel's Military/Political elite, most of them base their entire careers on the fact that yes, there will be blood shed.

But the kind of hype and type of ministry of defense (see "love") newspeaka as shown above, I find so disgusting, I don't even have the words to describe the kind of disrespect this sort of address is, especially as it was expressed by the current and former IDF Chief(s) of Staff at a memorial in honour dead soldiers, who died in what was a tragic accident.
To talk to the families and media and say that more soldiers are going to die in up coming wars, is enraging.

Not to mention that Gaydamak is using this as another opportunity to score browney points, look at the nice man, giving money for memorial monuments - Gaydamak also set up a tent city for the North Israel citizens who stayed in the Centre and South during Lebanon War II - he's definitely trying to do the whole "Private is Better" - yeah, let the Capitalists take over social security and services, that way the government won't need to be bothered with the citizens it supposedly serves... sorry went of tangent there.

I despise propaganda; especially fascist, military propaganda that uses dead soldiers to move and stir an agenda which most people would actually oppose!
Yes we must prepare for War, citizens and soldiers band together against the Enemy...
Bah!

I have a button that says "blame my parents" and I do, but in the way that button supposedly means.

Tonight my parents and I ate supper together, it was very nice, it doesn't always work out that we eat at a normal hour (around half-past seven) all together, our lives don't always mesh until around nine PM.
Anyway discussions, as ever, turned to politics.
There were disagreement, mainly between Mummy and I, seeing as Daddy was happy to just sit there, eat and watch the drama.
It wasn't really big argument, just a big clash of ideologies; I mean the differences between the way Mummy (and probably Daddy, but he didn't want to add much to the conversation) and I see things about the Israel/Palestinian conflict aren't big, not really, mostly I see Israel as purposefully keeping Gaza and the West Bank in Occupation/Poverty/etc. and Mummy says the Palestinians do it to themselves.

I learned my Humanism from Mummy, the whole People are People whoever they are; I mean the woman came olive picking with me in the Territories! I suppose that's why we have such heated arguments, our views aren't so far from each other, we both think the Palestinians deserve to be liberated from the brutality of their lives and that a Palestinian state is important - but the differences between whose to blame and who isn't is a sticky point.

I can't and won't say that everything Israel does is bad and that all the Palestinians are good, I mean, this is quite obviously not the case.
I'll also put a whole lot of blame on the other Arab and Muslim states and nations who use the Palestinians plight as an excuse to hate Israel and spread their Antisemitism, when they do nothing to actually help the Palestinians proper, like fund for housing, hospitals and education that doesn't incite hate and prejudice and not just give money to Hamas to buy more weapons or to Fatah in order to line their pockets.
Israel does, however, control everything that goes on in the West Bank and not allowing the PA to actually create a proper authority in the Territories - not to mention the Settlements, but that's just a whole other post - and lest we forget the continued siege on Gaza because no one is willing to talk to Hamas, not Abu-Mazen and Fayyed and not Olmert and Barak.

I've been told that everything that Israel does in Gaza is in retaliation to the Qassam rockets, which have been fired onto Sderot and the Kibbutzim of the West Negev for the past seven years (ever since the early stages of the Al-Aqsa Intifadah), and yesterday two rockets fell on siblings in Sderot, the older 19 year old had medium to minor injuries, the 8 year old had to have his leg amputated this morning.
It's a tragedy.
Missiles were fired into Gaza by the IDF and two bystanders in Rafah today were hurt, though no information was given about their condition.
This is also a tragedy.
Is one more tragic than the other?

So Mummy and I argued and we huffed at each other for about half and hour, and on TeVi there was movie in which a mother died and I began to cry, thinking about how terrible it would be for Mummy to die after we fought - my mother, who says (and I agree) I get my sentimentality from my father, said that just because we disagree doesn't mean we fought.
Awesome Woman.
I cried a little more and asked jokingly "You love me even though I care about suffering Palestinian babies?"
She laughed and said "Yes, but you don't need to care about all the suffering babies in the world... you're too sensitive"

Ain't that the truth - I still blame my parents for that though.

As per request: ( a translation of the conversation )

How does what compare the suffering of one to another?

I could be hypothetical, but living here and reading the News I can't; I think Hamas are crappy leaders and don't want what is best for their people; I think their method of fighting a siege does more harm than good in the end and in the end the IDF will march back into Gaza and re-occupy the place the Settlers left over two and a half years ago.
I think the people of Sderot and the West Negev have been completely abandoned by our leaders and in the inaction of the past seven years have absolutely no faith (with good reason) in this Government.

Does anyone?
I think the Annapolis Summit was nothing more than Pandering to a lame-duck Prez by two gutless leaders who don't have enough power to bring about real change in either Israel or Palestine.

In the West Bank there are still settlements being built and the different villages and refugee camps are being separated from each other by roads and road blocks. Not surprisingly there a lot of support for Hamas in the West Bank, where the inept leadership of Abu-Mazen and Fatah is glaring.
Also unsurprising, most of the people in Gaza aren't too happy with the leadership of Hamas, seeing as they are provocateurs who do their best to make their people suffer as much as possible in order to blame Israel on the lion's share of their suffering.
Hamas are a gangster gang who got the popular vote and abused their voters' confidence and hope that they will bring change and the little civil war that happened in Gaza has brought more suffering than not.

Unilaterally leaving Gaza without any talking to the Palestinians was hubris on Israel's part that the Palestinians would automatically begin to build a state in Gaza. How could they when there is so much infighting within the population? When the so many of the Palestinians are raised and taught to hate Israel and that the only hope they're taught is the hope of Paradise and not that of Independence.
In the West Bank this isn't even actual, with so many settlements which are still growing day by day and the Settlers using the resources for themselves.

As with everything it's far more complicated than "Big Bad Israel" and the "Poor Palestinians", to see thing so simplistically is ignorant and insulting to the situation, this is unfortunately the way lots of people see it.

At the end of the day, the individual people, me and you, that one and this one and all of us could get along.

It's a pity policy and government get in the way.

Fascist חולירות - that would be me comparing Israeli legislators to moisture sucking bacteria Fascist who want to control and our every move, thought and action.

When I saw the article and showed it to Mummy, I already knew what her reaction would be. It's the reaction of the privileged, those who take their privilege for granted, I don't blame Mummy for anything, it is a reasonable reaction, because she (and I for that matter) a law abiding citizen, so what do we have to worry about the police using the phone data base in order to catch the "real criminals".

Dissent isn't Sedition.
Talking isn't Walking.
Planning isn't Acting.
Thoughts are not Treason.

This law is wrong on so many levels, beyond those I've listed I don't even know where to begin! I mean for fuck's sake! Can no one in the fucking Knesset see where this is going?!
The military has become the political force upon which the government bases all it's decisions and no doubt the Shabak will use this nifty little law to support their own agenda.

If this isn't an infringement of civil liberties I don't know what is and I hope the Association of Civil Rights in Israel keeps a watch on this Draconian/Orwellian law.

And for those who didn't read the links, here are a few gems from the English article:

The new law will allow the police to request a judge's order to obtain such communications data on citizens, enabling the police to track a person's movements and all telephone calls. The database will include: telephone numbers, including unlisted ones; names of mobile phone subscribers; serial numbers of mobile phones; and maps of antenna locations.

And

In the case of serious crimes, the police can also receive, after court approval, a large amount of communication-related data. These would include a list of calls and messages, time and dates of all calls and messages; length of calls and size of messages; a list of the antennas and their locations used by cellular phones; and details of the payment methods used by customers.

All this data would allow the police to track a person and their calls.

Oh, and Lawyers, Journalists and other professionals who have secrecy privileges in their work won't be listed.
Bully for them, maybe the Lawyers and Journalists will write about how amoral this law is?!

Yeah, I'm pissed!