I have a question?

Have you ever been accused of being brain-washed, having voiced an "unpopular" position or opinion?

I always find that kind of response to be such a cop-out from actually giving any thought to an opinion that doesn't fit the general consensus.
I mean if what I have to say causes you such insecurity maybe one should think about why and not just accept what you think as The Way Things Are.

A smart person told me that there are no facts, there are only opinions. I have to say, coming from this person I found it odd that they would have such a post-modern way of thinking (post-modern, because it basically says that there is no such thing as empirical data that can be trusted), and I agree with them... it's true. Facts have very little bearing on opinion and opinion in general is what accumulates fact.
Makes the little adage "Don't confuse me with your facts", so funny.

In any event, while "empirical data" is often skewed and changed to fit an agenda - Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics - material reality is something you can't change. It's representation in the world, yes. What actually happens... not so much.

Over the past months I've been called "brain-washed", "extreme", "strange", "provocative", "sitting in an ivory-tower", "out of touch" etc. etc.

All I can think when I hear those words thrown at me is: "I can't believe how much people refuse to look, listen and learn outside what we're spoon fed".
And then I *sigh* and shut up, listen to what's being said, what isn't being said and continue to feel confident in the security that my opinions can take the beatings the general consensus throws at them.

Here's for some ( mainstream media madness )

Here is some more information. Skewed though it may be.
Israeli Commitee Against House Demolitions.

No superheros here.
No background music.
And certainly no happy endings in which said superhero lives to save another day.

Hey you guys, remember that lynching I mentioned last week?

Surptise, surprise... earlier this week there was another one - Ynet article.
And this time you can watch a video via the BBC article of it actually taking place, because the clever people at B'Tselem have been giving out video cameras to the people in villages to shoot the violence committed against them by the Settlers.

Those young men in the video that are wielding those baseball bats are probably in their late teens or early twenties.

No arrests have been made.
Yes, really.
A week have gone by and nothing, nada, ziltch, gurnisht and אפס מאופס.

And you know what really grinds my axe? The fact that, once again, the authorities, the media, the lawyers (should they come to be... though whenever there's trouble you can always rely on "Lawyers, Guns and Money") will say, what they said about the Jewish boys who lynched the Arab boys in Pisgat Ze'ev: This was a one time incident, they're wild weeds in the garden of Jewish goodness, these are normative youths who are misguided, etc, etc, etc.

And you know something, I keep seeing the word "Normative" thrown around when I read or come across incidents like this and to that I can only quote:
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride, 1987)

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'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.

When they've been forced into marriage.

Sometimes I fail to understand the logic of the world that I live in.

You know, the kind of bravery it takes for a little girl to run away from a house where she has was forced to "consummate the marriage" by her twenty-something "husband" is extraordinary.
The girl is eight.
EIGHT!
The whole idea of child brides, never mind teen brides, but Child Brides is beyond me. Isn't that institutionalized pedophilia?

The good news is the marriage was annulled, and the girl has gone to live with her family and will be returning to primary school.

Child brides make as much sense to me as "honour killings" - it's a "cultural thing" so it's okay. That's the way "they" treat women and children.
Who are we in the "West" to judge?

But see it's not the way "they" treat women and children. Women and children, in every culture, whether it's in this monolith we call the West or in "Ethnic" (I hate this word) cultures, will suffer for being women and children - especially female children.
I'll tell you how I feel the West has changed, instead of "honour killings" we have women and girls who are raped and murdered by their boyfriends, husbands or colleagues.
The majority of women who have been murdered, were murdered by their exes.
Instead of child brides we have child prostitutes.
The trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery is a pan-global phenomena.

So in the "West" there women can work, own property, choose to not marry, choose not to have children, wear pants and sneakers, not wear make-up etc.
In the "West" women can love who they want, speak out against gender based crimes, they can be doctors, lawyers, engineers, factory workers, writers, editors, actors, performers, leaders... they can go into any profession if they so choose.
I get to have more choices.
Which is a great consolation prize no doubt - this is said seriously.

My point is Relativism, as my Ethics professor said in the first lecture is "Moral Bankruptcy". If you're (editorial you) going to say "well, it's their culture, who are we to judge" - please make sure you understand the what makes a "culture", a culture and how it relates to the culture you're living in.

Here is the text to the article about the amazing little girl who got me ranting about the stupidness of moral and cultural Relativism: ( Under the Cut )

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.

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*.

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.

It's true you know.
I mean, there should be a "duh" factor here, but it's not a really a fact that one can take for granted.

I remember not too long ago (May 2007) the whole world was outraged at the murder of Dua Khalil, which I also wrote about at the time.
Yes, it was disgusting.
What's more disgusting is that since then very little has been done to stop these murders, which are more common than not.

In Israel it too happens much more often than people suspect, or more to the point, care.

What frustrates me more than anything; more than the lackadaisical police work in matters of this kind; more than the attitude of appeasement certain factions of the liberal/radical left have towards extremists, simply because they aren't Western, is that this attitude is nothing more than well concealed racism and sexism.

Yeah, I hears the gasp. How, do I hear you ask?

It is racism because this kind of "custom" would never be tolerated in "civilized" society. It is racism because if a white woman or girl were to be murdered in the name of "honour" the authorities would call it a heinous crime.
It is sexism because it ignores the fact that women are not merchandise to be procured and then discarded and thrown away if she doesn't work the way she "should". It is sexism because women are people.
It is inhuman.
Period.

To say that this sort of treatment towards women is a "cultural" thing is pretty insulting to the people of that culture don't you think? What, only Western women have the right, excuse me, the privilege to stand up and leave and create a different, new life for herself.
Even if it is a "custom" this "honour before life" crap, the woman, girl, who has brought shame onto the family has the right to live her own life! For fuck's sake, most of the girls and women murdered in the name of honour are virgins (as though that makes a difference), those who aren't were most likely raped and those that weren't raped and chose to sleep with someone are allowed that choice as human beings.
Because women are people, no more and no less than any other man.

The whole world said "this is wrong" when Dua Khalil died, because like in the old days it was made public, so public the entire world tuned in to see a young 17 year old be murdered for being seen with a man not her kin and religion.
The whole world said "this is wrong" when the Qatif Girl was sentenced to 200 lashes for being found in the company of a man not her kin after she and her boyfriend had been raped.

If we're already on the subject of people speaking their minds: I hear people criticize Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan and other Muslims (or former Muslims) whom immigrated from Arab and Muslim nations, for selling themselves to a right wing agenda, or for being overly critical of the countries from where they came and I'm angered by that.
While I have issues with the political views of some of the people I mention above, I wouldn't ignore what they have to say about extremist Islamistic regimes, they know where they come from.

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.

Well, Hamas claims responsibility for this mornings suicide bombing in Dimona, even though the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigade and the PFLP also claimed that they did it.

Three dead people (Israeli woman, the two Palestinian Bombers).
Thirty (at least) wounded.

It's not a fun place to be, let me tell you.
The terrible humanity of it all, I know it sounds trite, but it really is.
It's so easy not to care and to shut out the whole thing, saying "Those Arabs only understand violence", it would be a tempting view to hold, but it would be dismissing the motivation behind why the extremists do what they do. I don't think anybody could justify the methods the Palestinians use, but you can't ignore the place they are coming from. To just see them as pure killers is to ignore the injustice done by Israel and to ignore the situation which brought them to this despair.
No matter how much Israelis suffer because of the conflict, we are stronger and we have better weapons and we don't die as much as Palestinians do.
That's a fact.
Does that give them the right to put on a bomb belt, walk into a mall and intend to kill innocent civilians? No.
But when all Israelis mean to them is a big block of Occupation force... are we even human to that kind of mindset?
Just like the view of "Violent Arabs", in that mindset, are they human?

I just noticed I'm using the dichotomous separation of "we, they"... I find that so incredibly sad and... kinda weird.

This is a difficult view to hold, I think. It requires a hell of a lot of self examination and criticism and the knowledge that what you believe is different from the status quo.

Despite it all, I still feel hopeful that one day, hopefully during my life time, this place won't be this hell-hole that it is and that people can be people together, even if we aren't the same people.

Israel's Education Ministry has decided that Arabic Language classes in Junior High are redundant, because the ultra-Orthodox find it, um, "unacceptable", or at least not as worthy as other subjects... because literature and science is oh so important in religiously fundamental circles, dontcha' know!

Apart from the decree being unbelievably racist! It really can't be all that legal seeing as Arabic, along with Hebrew, is written in the law as a national language, not that we're taught it from grade 1 to read, write and speak it (like Arab pupils have to learn Hebrew from grade 1), but it is/was compulsory to study it from grade 7 to 8 (which I didn't since 10 years ago you could pick between Arabic and French and I went all Euro-centric... I hate French btw), it's something, not much, but at least it isn't a complete and utter exclusion of the Arab minority in Israel, like the complete removal of it would cause - though one wonders if things could get any worse in that respect.

Of course there hasn't been complete silence on the matter, Education Minister Yuli Tamir will be looking into, perhaps, maybe reversing the decree and not appearing like a complete political push over and there is a petition to be signed (only those with an Israeli/Palestinian(?) ID or Passport) and it can be found here at Indimage, Education in Mixed Cities.

If you oppose institutionalized racism and are able to sign the petition I urge you to do so!

The Petition

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.

Bush is leaving and his visit passed without any major disasters. Protests and Demos from both sides of the spectrum, for completely different reasons, but once again we see the two sides of the fence united in their dislike towards The Prez.

Soon he'll be gone, he's already somewhat of a lame duck, but soon (and hopefully) some sanity will return to the White House.

Speaking of which, the brouhaha on the net concerning Gloria Steinem's NY Times Op-Ed about Hillary Clinton (and BTW am I the only one annoyed that in the media she is called "Hillary" while everyone else is referred to by their surname?!).
Gender is still divisive, no doubt. It is probably the most divisive tool humanity has invented and we still have a long way to go which seems to be something Ms. Steinem doesn't want to see, at least that was the impression I got from the op-ed.
The whole "Weeping Woman" thing with Clinton in New-Hampshire was, in my mind, blown out of proportion by the media.

At this point in our collective history true equality does not exist. Mainly because the game played is the same, only with a little more diversity when it comes to gender and race. Women if they are to be successful (i.e. make money) have to work as men have worked. This isn't so different from before Suffrage in the late 19th century to early 20th century and the Civil Rights Movement era, during which many, many groups demanded recognition and self-determination, the Women's movement was big then. But the revolution is over and all men and women, of every race and ethnicity are equal. Right?

Eh, not so much.

The world in which we live in demands that women do exactly the same as men in the name of equality, to be "as good as the next guy".
A great aspiration indeed.
Though not the entire or even the goal at all.
Ms. Steinem is being a little unfair, because change and the relations between the genders are different from the time she stood on the podium and demanded to be recognized.
We have progressed, but to where?
That's the question.

There is a difference between Reformism and Radicalism. At the moment there is reform going on, changes made in the System to accommodate the change going on (much too slowly).

But doesn't anyone think that perhaps the System (society, culture etc.) is flawed and that we should aspire to change that, a few grassroots at a time.

Reform is good for now, the immediate, because we have yet to reach a critical mass where the overhaul of a the machine in which we live is viable, at least in my opinion.
That doesn't mean we mustn't cease to move towards a more radical solution in order to end these oppressions, which while are not protected by law any more, are still entrenched and instilled into us from babyhood.

Yesterday Left-Wing activists (Israeli and Palestinian) built a mock Palestinian settlement in protest the settlement expansion in the West Bank.
The response: Police arrived and arrested nine of the activists who are/were under investigation.

The area in question is known as E-1 and it is a few kilometers from Ma'aleh Adumim (East of Jerusalem).

Hebrew and English articles.

Today Right-Wing activists (Israeli) are marching with the intention to build new settlements, both sanctioned and illegal.
The response: Police arrived on the scene but did nothing to stop the march and Peace Now activists are also there protesting.

The area in question is known as E-1 and it is a few kilometers from Ma'aleh Adumim (East of Jerusalem).

Hebrew and English articles

My response: *head-laptop* repeat until explosion.

The drainage pipe that was blocked on Tuesday was de-blocked the next day, but only after we mopped up and poured over 100 litres of rain and drain water down the shower pipes.
Even during the years that our roof leaked did I never mop up so much water and I felt so bad because it was so much wasted water (plus wet furniture, feet and floor). Thankfully we stayed on top of things before our plumber came and fixed the pipe, I had gone out, not wanting to witness the tragedy that would unfold.

It rained for two days straight, which really would never have bothered me had the rain stayed where it belonged and out of my house.

I know I'm being unfair and closed minded about the weather, but damnit I live in a First World Country, where it rains for only three-to-four months (and that's stretching it) and when it rains and inevitably pours, I demand to remain safe and dry in my own effing house!

I can see I'm getting worked up for nothing so I'll change the subject quickly.

A question (and a precurser to what will likely be my next post at some point): Is it racist to say you dislike a culture, but not necessarily the people, or do the two inevitably get mixed and you end up disliking/hating the culture and people (race/ethnicity) of said culture?

The question arose discussion I had last night and I realise it is very vague, so I'll expand on it later on (hopefully today, but I make no promises and no solemn swears).

A few days ago I was reading the blog of an entertaining graphic designer, she's a Palestinian Arab and mentions it probably as much I mention that I'm an Israeli Jew (meaning offhandedly and not always politically), which is cool. It's always good to remember that the blogosphere isn't different shades of White.
However, she wrote something that bothered me and I didn't comment, because my GDess the backlash it would have caused, and the grief it would have given both her and I wouldn't be worth it.
So I'm going to write my much longer, would be comment, here on my own little piece of the Internet.
( Cut so that all your f-lists are comfy )

Should I prepare for my own backlash?
*hides* ;)

Some of you know, some of you don't. But about a week or so ago there was an explosion in fandom regarding Antisemitism(1). Seeing as it was all very US-Centric I didn't feel I had much to contribute and to tell the truth I didn't think I could give any proper account for being a minority seeing as the country I live in, being Jewish is the privileged majority, specifically Ashkenazi Jews, like me.
Basically, in Israel, religiously, racially and ethnically, I'm the "WASP"(2). I am greatly privileged by this, even in countries outside Israel, unless I told someone no would know I was Jewish (I'm pale and fair and have no physical characteristics that would mark me as Jew), when I speak English I have a South African accent, thanks to being the child of immigrants, and my name isn't a Hebrew name, again, thanks to being the child of immigrants.
All this makes me extremely, extremely privileged.
At home I am "the majority" and don't need to pretend to be anything else and in other "White Majority" countries I can pass with little effort.
( so as not to eat your f-list )

Another thing that erupted from this whole kerfuffle, is a meme (that's what it is) that began at oyceter and it's called common and hidden knowledge and it comes to challenge what we know or what we thing we know about certain things in cultures no our own. Lots of people have already done their own, some of them have been about Judaism, so it seems redundant for me to do one about that.
So I've decided to test my readers knowledge about the basics of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
I ask you not to answer the questions in the comments, as I'll be posting the answers sometime later on, you can tell me if you think you know the answers, but actual answers later.
( Common and Hidden Knowledge on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict )

Hope you guys do well!

Notes:
(1) A few more links: here, here, here and here. There will probably be more later today or tomorrow so just keep track of metafandom which is a great link gathering comm in any event.
(2) If I start on the personal politics, woman and queer thing I'll never get to my point, but having certain politics, being female and queer, does cause trouble.

ETA: coffeeandink made a link roundup of other "Hidden and Common Knowledge" posts, including others in the comments.

21/10/07 ETA: The answers to the Hidden and Common Knowledge questions are here.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.