AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/23/2003 11:31:00 AM
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BODY: Another taste of Israel

Now that I have found out that TA University allocates server space for each student I’ll use it and bring you songs I like or songs that are hitting the local charts. Music is one of the many sides of Israel, so I’m guessing you’ll like it.

First song is called Tikva (Hope) by Subliminal and the Shadow – 2 popular Israeli rappers that sing great hip hop. This song is currently number 3 in Israel’s top 20 Hebrew chart. The songs of Subliminal and the Shadow are very patriotic (you can understand that from the CD cover posted here) I’m too lazy to translate whole song but here is one of my favorite lines:

“ The land absorbs our blood and tears … the hope in our hearts is locked, a strong people, we will not give in because no son of a bitch has yet been born who can stop Israel.''


Here are two articles about the two rappers: Miami Herald , Reuters. And here is the cd review. You can buy their cd here it's on sale, only 12$.

I'd like to know if you liked it or not. Email me: gil_shterzer at hotmail dot com



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/21/2003 10:51:00 PM
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BODY: Now this is interesting

I know I’m 24 hours late on that but this is important:

AP: “ BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated Tuesday after a five-day Israeli invasion damaged farms and buildings, but in a rare twist, their wrath was directed at Palestinian militants for inviting the attack by firing rockets from their property.

Two hours after Israeli troops left, about 600 angry residents of the town of 35,000 took to the streets in a spontaneous protest, complaining that the militants had caused Israel to destroy 15 houses and uproot thousands of olive, citrus and date palm trees. It was a rare outburst; most Palestinian demonstrations are aimed at Israel.

The protesters blocked a main road with trash cans, rocks and burning tires in a show of outrage against the militants. Most of the rockets are launched at towns inside Israel by members of the militant Islamic movement, Hamas.

"They (the militants) claim they are heroes," said Mohammed Zaaneen, 30, a farmer, as he carried rocks into the street. "They brought us only destruction and made us homeless. They used our farms, our houses and our children ... to hide."”

(another report in the Jerusalem Post)

This is a good example of what’s going on in the last 2.5 years of violence. From this micro incident we can project on the macro, the bigger picture.

The fence around the Gaza Strip limits the Palestinians terrorists to attacking Israeli targets inside the strip. The only way they can hit inside Israel is by firing their Kassam rockets that usually cause no damage but already injured a few Israelis, no fatalities yet. Those rockets are short ranged and thus the Hamas terrorists who launch them must fire them relatively close to the Strip’s fence. Instead of risking themselves in open fields they fire it from the town of Beit Hanun. IDF trying to stop it is drawn into the town searching for those rockets and their launchers. The Palestinian residents are the one to take the shit. Those rockets fired on the Israeli town of Sderot cannot be taken as is even though they cause little damage. I’d like to see any country standing almost a daily dose of rockets hitting one of its towns. So the Palestinian terrorists know they don’t cause much damage and that it will lead for an harsh response from Israel, but yet they continue.

If look on the macro now: The Palestinians are trying to inflict pain to Israel no matter what the consequences might be. They inflict a lot of pain to Israel but the pain the to suffer from the Israeli RETALIATION is greater for obvious reasons. Israel is much stronger even though she’s not using a pinch of its military ability.

Before Arafat ignited this Palestinian terror attack life was relatively quiet here and in the Palestinian territories. Sure there were misdo on both sides but things were solved/ or tried to be solved by negotiation not shedding blood. Arafat chose to shade Israeli blood knowing it will lead for a much greater blood shade among his on people but he didn’t care. The simple Palestinian is a tool in his hand and he has got no sentiments for it. The Beit Hanun demonstration is encouraging but the Palestinians are still a long way from realizing their mistake in choosing the terror way.

More:
Miranda wonders what does the ISM loonies have to say about it.

Also tackling/mentioning this report: LGF, Instapundit, Allison, Imshin, Damian Penny, Segacs, Stefan Sharkansky and Jennifer.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 09:17:00 PM
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BODY: No more IndyMedia lies in Google News

I got a reply from Google saying they stopped including IndyMedia stories on their News site.

Thank you for your email about Google News. We appreciate your concerns
about the results you have seen and want you to know that Indymedia
stories are no longer included in Google News. If you retry your search,
you should receive a different set of news results.

Thanks for taking the time to write to Google and for sharing your views
with us.

Regards,
The Google Team

Look like they stop indexing new IndyMedia items, the last one in this search is from May 13. They also took off the stories calling Israelis “Zionazis”.

Thank you Google and thank to those of you who emailed them. You can e-mail google and thank them at comments@google.com. Also read Meryl take on that.

Update: IndyMedia whiners are running a petition to get it back on Google News (link via LGF)



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 08:31:00 PM
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BODY: In the midst of recent days horrors

Israeli judoka Arik Ze’evi won the gold medal in the European judo championship held in Germany this week.

Ha’aretz: “ There is no lack of cynicism in Israel sport, but to hear Hatikva played on German soil and to see the honor bestowed by the crowd on Arik Ze'evi was impressive. After his convincing victory over Elco van der Geest, dozens of children sprang forward to ask for the Israeli judoka's autograph.”

There’s just nothing like wining a european championship infront of German audience.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 08:04:00 PM
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BODY: Is this serious?

Sometimes I wonder if items on the news didn’t just slip in from the comic section. Ha’aretz: “Shalom: Israel considering applying for EU membership”.

Hey sure why not, lots of financial benefits in that. But lets face it – they’ll never take us in, maybe when the messiah comes and even then I’m not sure. Sometimes it’s better to keep quiet than make a fool out of your self. I’m sure this Reuters story made a lot of people laugh in Europe.

Update: It looks like Allison shares my skepticism.


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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 03:58:00 PM
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BODY: Regarding the photo I posted

I’m guess some of you found the photo I posted of the Jerusalem suicide bombing to gruesome. Maybe some of you think I shouldn’t have posted it. I’m not sorry I did that. Sadly this blog’s history is full of posts about terror attacks and those who follow this blog know I sometimes post photos of the attack. Those photos, in my opinion, should not be censored. I don’t know if they are appropriate for big media but I find them suitable for my blog, since I reckon my readers want to get another glance on the incident beside media reports. And apart of my musings the photos are another aspect. They don’t say for nothing that one picture is worth a thousand words. The photo I posted is hard to watch but it’s not a snuff photo, it is one of the strongest photos I’ve ever seen. The net is full of horrific photos of human parts and suicide bombers ripped bodies, you’ll never find them here. That photo on the other hand concluded the whole event and I don’t regret I posted it.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 03:43:00 PM
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BODY: Israeli blogosphere

The site I took the quote below is part of a new Israeli site called Notes (Reshimot) which contains a few personal blogs of all kinds of could be interesting writers selected by the site operators. The Funny thing is that they insist not to call those personal sites “blogs” even though they are. Doesn’t matter how they call it, it is still a major development in the Israeli blogosphere.

Another pioneer was the first celebrity (or sort of celebrity as he defined himself) to open a blog (about 2 months ago). Dan Toren is a singer and an actor. At first it wasn’t clear whether it’s really his blog, but it is. So another milestone for the local scene.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 03:04:00 PM
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BODY: Why the comments are off

I found a good argument why to keep the comments disabled in an Israeli blog.

“The Internet is like a public square, and like any square it takes only one that litters to make it dirty. I want to keep this corner of the web as clean as possible”



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 02:53:00 PM
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BODY: What will they do?

Among the 3 Israelis killed yesterday in the suicide bombing in Afula is an Arab citizen. Hassan Ben Ismail Tawatha, 41, from the village of Jisr a Zarqa, an observing Muslim was slaughtered in Allah’s name.

I wonder if this poor man’s family will receive money from the Israeli-Arab foundation that finance families of Palestinian bombers? Or will the money the family of this suicide bomber will get a bit less because she killed an Arab.

And what about the Palestinian bus passenger that was killed in the suicide bombing in Jerusalem, where will Reuters put his name in the statistics? On the Israeli side of the casualties or in the Palestinian side, even though a Palestinian killed him.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/20/2003 01:02:00 PM
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BODY: Liquidate them

It's really beyond me why Sharon doesn’t order to waste Ahmed Yassin or at least high rank Hamas filths such as Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, Mahmoud Al-Zahaar who gloat on tv every time a suicide bomber blows himself up.

Not that it will halt those attacks but it won’t worsen things up. The Palestinians attack whenever they can so at least make them pay. And what about Arafat? Not that Arafat is a saint but he enjoys the protection of Europe. Hamas terrorists are legitimate target, it’s time to take them down, and if it means taking members of their families while killing Yassin and company, I’ve got no problem with that.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/18/2003 09:37:00 PM
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BODY: Interesting insight

Geoff writes something to think about: “How anti-Semitism differs from pretty much all other forms of bigotry and racism. Typically, the targets of racism are denigrated: blacks are stupid, Mexicans are lazy, Arabs are backwards murderers, etc. Conversely, anti-Semites tend to portray Jews as being all powerful: Jews control the American government, Jews control the British government, Jews control Hollywood and the media, Jews are using communism to take over the world, Jews are capitalist imperialists, etc. I suppose that we should be flattered that these people fear our alleged omnipotence, but I find that I'm unable to be so.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/18/2003 09:20:00 PM
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BODY: Bits

The Shabak apprehended 8 Israeli Arabs, members of a Hamas cell, that planned to kidnap Israeli bus into the PA in order to blackmail the release of Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel.

Toady’s suicide bomber succeeded in killing one Palestinian, Tawil Ralab, 42, from Shoafat, along with the 6 Israelis.

ISM best buddies, Arafat’s Al Aqsa Brigades, murdered in Nablus a 21 years old Palestinian, which they suspected of collaborating with Israel.



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AUTHOR:G.
DATE:5/18/2003 12:27:00 PM
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BODY: No words needed





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