News – Apartheid in Israel, Part One

Middle East

It’s been said for some time, that the internal system of Israel that controls all aspects of life for Palestinians that live in the country resembles South African Apartheid. Here we have the first part of two in a series exploring that, this being a very deep, thorough exploration and comparison. All I have to say to Israelis who doubt this is to look at what their government does to people living on the fringe who are just trying to do that.. live. While Israeli apartheid isn’t a a carbon copy, there are enough parallels to be worrying. And that some Israelis themselves can’t seem to see it only makes it more dangerous.

Does anyone wish to deny Israel’s state sponsored racism any longer? If so, feel free and include whatever reasoning you have. The more we let Israel run wild, while being hard on everyone who opposes it, the more we encourage the government to continue doing whatever it wants to do, even if that further corrupts Israel into shades of those who once victimized Jews.

Israeli Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that Israel hasn’t’ given up on Abbas. “As long as he does not cooperate with Hamas and the Palestinian government is not a Hamas government, we will cooperate with the Palestinian Authority cautiously and responsibly,” he said in broadcast remarks. So as long as the results of a fair diplomatic election in Palestine are ignored, they’ll continue to deal with Abbas? That plan is doomed from the start. I think we can safely assume, unless some more moderate leadership comes into power in Israel, that we can now count on a lack of peace, regardless of what Hamas does.

A former Green Beret heads to Iraq to blog from the trenches, providing a perspective different from that of the US military’s PRed recollections. He’s pro-military, don’t doubt it, but he doesn’t shy from reporting the bad things straight. That’s something I can respect.

Note comes that about $700 million(Or more) has been looted/squandered from Palestinian coffers over the last few years. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some last minute looting by Fatah after Hama’s win as well.

The US has tripled the cash being spent to try and stop bomb attacks in Iraq. They’ll also be doubling the number of personnel on the problem.

Asia

South Korea has the best tact for dealing with its neighbor to the north. Matters of human rights can wait until after peace has been brokered. They sort of have to, because what good has prodding North Korea on human rights done now? Outside of further antagonizing and giving them an easy reason to spout more rhetoric.

Europe

Denmark continues to be a focus as protests continue over a cartoon insulting to Islam. World leaders call for calm after the Danish diplomatic missions were set afire. Of course this sort of overreaction is a very bad, very sad thing. Though I do suggest the perspective that many Muslims aren’t yet used to this sort of self satire as the rest of us are. It doesn’t excuse what is happening, but considering that fact does give perspective.

North America

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Volker says that sanctions on Iran, outside of UN action, would be legitimate. Sure, but only so strong as the number of nations you can get to follow suit. So long as a few elements continue to have trade with Iran, other sanctions are less dire and less of a prod. With Russia and China not so eager to sanction Iran, I can easily see them not going along with sanctions outside of UN jurisdiction.

Bush will be cutting domestic programs in the upcoming 2007 budget, again sparing the bloated defense budget a proper trimming. More than the organization of the military needs to be made trim and fast, the budget needs to have pork and fat cut out of it as well, to make the military more fiscally efficient. And any new programs in the military should have to face a firm set of requirements to make sure it’s something that will show decided benefits for the cost.

The Bush administration continues efforts to justify their secret eavesdropping program. The plain and simple fact, from my PoV, is that I have no trust for this administration. Therefore, anything done by them alone, secretly, is suspect. They can tell me vaguely of all the guards they have against spying on Americans, but without trust, I believe none of it. Only after a third party(the Senate, perhaps), has signed off on it will I accept that the program has at least acceptable safeguards. Even if the hearing on it is done in secret. And I suspect the same is true for many Americans.

Remember Zacarias Moussaoui? He’s still lost in the American legal system, though that might end soon as a trial is starting up to decide on his final sentence, after he plead guilty to charges against him.

Rummy goes out on a limb, stating that Iran is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. You got the proof for this inflammatory remark, Rumsfeld? Or are you talking out of your ass again? Never mind the questionable veracity of the remark, how about the diplomatic impact? What, getting Iran to comply with various demands hasn’t been hard enough already? I’ll never understand the need people have to make comments that will obviously make their tasks harder.

General

Teens are revealing too much personal info online. Parents, get to know what your kids are doing online, make sure they’re not prey for those who hunt online.

<A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2135453/”>The Blogs look at John Boehner’s surprise ascension to the House majority leadership, British National Party head Nick Griffin’s temporary reprieve from “race hate” charges and the expulsion from Venezuela of a U.S. naval attache accused of “spying.”.

Today’s Papers has an evolutionary psychology explanation for road rage, the fact that state and local health departments are unprepared for an avian flu pandemic, Shiites using tough tactics to take on the largely Sunni insurgency in Iraq and more in the one page news.

Amusements

AOL and Yahoo to start charging e-mail “postage”

New York City transit authority tries see-through trash cans in attempt to foil terrorists and misguided belief that passengers ever use them

If you’re drunk, it’s probably best if you don’t try any fire-breathing tricks to impress chicks

Twenty-four year old Bush campaign worker with no science background gets rewarded with appointment to NASA, tries to promote intelligent design, discount the Big Bang on NASA’s web page. Hilarity ensues

One armed man given parking ticket at airport for taking too long to load luggage

New study from Institute Of The Stunningly Obvious finds most men would rather get a new electronic gadget for Valentine’s Day than candy or flowers. Not that they will

If you complain to Boston’s transit system about their fake schedule, they’ll give you a refund of fake money

The 2006 suck ass Super Bowl commercials

When police arrive to collect a fine, you aren’t really helping your situation by inviting them in for booze and crack

Play at Australian amateur championship held up when armed man drives stolen truck onto course, gets stuck in bunker and runs into empty house. Tragedy strikes as sixth green put off limits after police declare it a “crime scene”

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: World leaders in silly hats

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Indian actress Khushboo has sued Maxim because the magazine had the audacity to photoshop her. Let’s see if Fark can improve Khushboo’s mood

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: Battle of the breakfast cereals