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Barack, when someone accuses you of being Muslim, and catches you in non-Western garb. Why don’t you call out their racism and bigotry, instead of hiding behind your family bible? After the embarrassment we had in the last 8 years, I would hope the next leader of the free world could call out hate and xenophobia when she/he sees it.

For the last year I have been patiently waiting for the presidential candidates to be more eloquent about their mid-east peace policy, and to abandon the empty AIPAC rhetoric that every presidential hopeful must adopt. The truth of the matter is that up until now, their amorphism on the subject has been unchallenged by the media or their rivals. No more!

Ralph joined the race, and hopefully will help bring the debate up a notch. In the first few minutes of his presidential bid, Nader managed to challange Obama’s mid-east stance.

I don’t have much hope that Nader will be our next president, but I am hopeful that he will help keep the Democrat candidate honest, or at least make the hypocrisies clear. Ralph, I’m glad you are in my neighborhood.

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When I hear family and friends express frustration with the U.N.’s actions I wonder when will we, as a Jewish nation, notice that we have been shooting ourselves in the foot repeatedly, by helping destroy the entity that was founded to protect people exactly like us.

On June 26th, 1945 the United Nations Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, immediately following WWII. It’s main goal was to prevent the tragadies of global war and genocide. It was founded as a protector of minorities and disenfranchised people world wide, and a conduit to avoid armed conflict by diplomatic means.
The prevalent example at the time for a disenfranchised minority were the Jewish survivors of the mechanized Nazi killing machine, and the U.N. was quick to provide a long lasting solution for the Jewish people: a state of their own. This happened with Resolution 181 that was voted in on November 29, 1947.
In 1955, Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister (but then only defense minister), suggested forcefully expelling all Fedayeen fighters outside of the Gaza strip. Prime minister Moshe Sharet objected, saying the U.N. would not allow such an action, and that it must be respected, since without the U.N. Israel would not have been founded, to which Ben Gurion replied “Um Shmum” (Um is U.N. in Hebrew, “Shmum” is a dismissive).
Since that day the U.N.’s general assembly and security council have passed over 100 resolutions regarding Israel, the majority of which condemn Israel for various actions, from military aggression, to down right war crimes and human right abuses.
Today, Israel’s government and it’s “friends” see the U.N. as a weak, antisemitic, and useless organization. And reject it’s resolutions again and again. For 50 years the U.N. has been hindering Israel with such petty issues as human rights, and unchecked aggression. But luckily for Israel, it has a super power as it’s ally, so it does not need to conform to the same international laws that were inspired by tragedies in the likes of the Holocaust.

The latest outrage is Israel’s success in undermining the U.N.’s fact finding mission headed by Desmond Tutu.

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I am in the middle of a book called The Ecology of Commerce. As the name suggests it is about how a free market could become environmentally restorative. Besides the main theme there are more than a few gems of social justice in there. Here is my favorite:

In reality, we have not one but two welfare systems. The first is meager, consisting of aid to the unemployed, dependent children, the poor and helpless. It is seen as a charity, a hand-out, a grudging acceptance of social responsibility, but it is almost always accompanied by judgement, admonishments of failure, and a high moral tone. The second welfare system is large, expensive, and expansive. It comes in the form of large government grants and programs for building highways, subsidies to the rich in the form of interest payment deductions on their houses, giveaways of timber and mining rights on government lands, government-financed research in universities, revolving door policies between the defense industry and government resulting in expensive, poorly planned procurement policies, and so on.

Hawkins goes on and writes that the top fifth of the population receives three times more housing subsidy then the bottom fifth.

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השיר העילאי שלפנינו, המשלב מינונים מדודים אך חריפים של סאטירה, פטאליזם חסר-אונים ומלנכוליה קיומית, אינו פרי עטו של ברכט; הוא לא נלקח מתוך מחזה של יונסקו או של חנוך לוין, אף שהאבסורד והייאוש - המעורבים ביותר מקורט של קומדיה - זועקים או מגחכים כאן בכל שורה. גם אין זה עיבוד או תרגום חופשי לשיר פציפיסטי של וו.ה. אודן.שורות אלו הושמעו בערוץ 1 של הטלוויזיה מפי הכתב הצבאי יואב לימור

לכתבה בהארץ

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We could expect an Israeli-Syrian war next summer. When it will come, it will not be a heroic battle that was forced upon us, it will have been a sound choice that the Israeli government is making today. The war’s only justification will be self-preservation, not of Israel mind you, but of it’s Olmert-lead government:

1. Instead of risking a no-confidence vote, Olmert chose to widen the coalition to include Lieberman, a racist, and his party. With such members in the coalition it would be unimaginable to reply positively to recent peace feelers. As a matter of fact, diplomatic initiatives on any front are out of the question with such a broad coalition.
2. The state and defense leadership are today under harsh criticism for their faltering performance during the past war, and under heavier criticism for not initiating an effective fact finding committee. What they all pray for is another war, and quick. From top to bottom, the system is convinced, that they could get it right the next time, and such a success would eclipse all of their past inadequacy.

Yes, an agreement with Syria means returning the Golan, this is not news, this is very old news. For almost 40 years we knew that this would be the price for a comprehensive peace with Syria. After this predicted war, the price of peace will still be the same, one Golan Heights. Everybody knows that the question is not if we will ever return the Golan to Syria, but when. Why are we hesitating?

So why are there no public figures in Israel who are crying out about this obvious future crime? Simple, the vast majority of the political leadership is in the government, and they are an accomplice to all of the above. Almost the entire political spectrum is in one big boat, and they will do and say anything to keep themselves and their careers afloat for just one more day.

And we will all pay the price.

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