Friday, July 29, 2005

Reducing Mutual Dependence

Good idea about Gaza Strip.
EREZ CROSSING - As of 2008, Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip will no longer be allowed to enter Israel and will have to find work in the Palestinian Authority, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday during a visit to the Erez border crossing in the Gaza Strip.From ynet

But until then...

A modern crossing

IDF officers and defense establishment officials have presented Mofaz with plans to construct a modern border crossing at Erez, which would include six crossing points to allow some 500 men to enter Israel an hour. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2006.

Why is this good news? Hopefully this will stop the long cues at checkpoints that frustrate Palestinians. Nobel Laureate Shimon Peres who founded The Peres Center for Peace in 1996 with the express aim of “realizing his vision of a "New Middle East", in which people of the region work together to build peace through socio-economic cooperation and people-to-people relations,” has long maintained that jobs and economic opportunities are the glue that can hold the peace together.
However, the there are still many concerns on both sides

Israel is giving up these hothouses in Gaza that produce millions of shekels a year. What do you think should happen to them?

Checkpoints

As a proud Jew and Zionist, the Current IDF presence in Gaza, Yehuda and Shmoron is raising some difficult questions for me. I have been thinking about this issue for many years. The way I see it, the Palestinians(Ishmael) and the Israelis(Yitzchak) are brothers who are in a feud so bitter, that the only solution is divorce, separation and disengagement. They need to separate from each other.

There needs to be a wall between the two, and one should not live in the face of the other. Maybe by the time I have grandchildren, the wall could be taken down and the brothers could learn to be civil again, but until then, we must disengage.

Especially if it will prevent our young soldiers doing things like this….

Fiddler at the Checkpoint
Israeli troops forced a Palestinian man to play his violin in order to pass through a roadblock near the West Bank city of Nablus, human rights activists said Thursday.


An officer made the Palestinian man take out his violin and play for about two minutes as hundreds of other Palestinians waited behind him for their turn to pass, said Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer for the Israeli rights group Machsom Watch, which monitors soldiers' conduct at the roadblocks.

The army said the soldiers made him open the case and play the instrument to show there were no explosives hidden inside, but noted the incident was "insensitively dealt with by the soldiers at the roadblock who are faced with a difficult and dangerous reality."

It said a high-level investigation was conducted, and that the soldiers had been reprimanded.


For more on this matter see Checking the Checkpoints and Machsom watch

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Orange is not all bad

To all those with an abundance of orange still in the wardrobe. According to www.jewlicious.com Anti-Disengagement Chicks are HOT!



Although wearing in Orange star is definitely out!





Put quite simply...

With all due respect to pullout opponents...
Chemi Shalev

Number 1. Israel is not Nazi Germany. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not Adolf Hitler. Israeli officials dealing with the disengagement are not the Judenraat. Gush Katif victims are not persecuted Jews.

The use of Holocaust imagery by the supposedly super-patriotic opponents of the Gaza pullout is not only a gross denigration of the State of Israel, it is Holocaust denial of a most odious nature, a virtual feast for the David Irvings and Fredrick Tobens of this world.



And the use of kids. Perhaps Ok, unless picking the shnoze?

Are you making a political statement right now?

Attention friends with coloured hair. You may be making a political statement. Be careful!
Haaretz reports
A parliamentary aide has petitioned the Jerusalem Labor Court against the Knesset's decision to deny him entry to the building because he dyed his hair orange.

David Harmelin, an aide to MK Naomi Blumenthal (Likud), dyed his hair to protest the disengagement. But when he attempted to go to work with his new hairdo, the Knesset guard refused to allow him entry

Wow!

Ittay's fashion tips

Word on the street has it that Orange is so last season, nobody is buying it, even from the 99 agurot bin.

So when you choose your wardrobe for this season, think twice before choosing orange.

Leaving Gaza

There is currently a great dilemma going on in Israel as whether the country is better maintaining or disengaging from the Gaza strip. Recently in Melbourne(outside Werdiger hall) there was a rally where two groups, the oranges(against leaving) and the blues(for leaving) had a stoush across balaclava road. I went along and spent some time with both sides. Whilst rather entertaining as a spectacle, I felt it achieved little.




Here is a picture of the blue team. I wonder who won?


Pictures of the event from Aussie Echo.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

My first entry

Welcome to Ittay's blog. In what may be an interesting experiment to dialouge of a different nature, I'd like to share this quote which guides me:

Ben Zoma says: Who is wise? He who learns from every person as it is stated: (1) "From all those who have taught me, I have gained wisdom, for Your testimonies are my conversation." Who is mighty? He who subdues his inclination, as it is stated: (2) "A patient person is better than the strong man, and he who masters his spirit is better than one who conquers a city." Who is rich? He who is happy with his portion, as it is stated: (3) "When you eat of the labor of your hands, you will be happy, and it will be good for you." "You will be happy" - in this world; "it will be good for you" - in the World to Come. Who is honored? He who honors others, as it is stated: (4) "I will honor those who honor Me, and those who despise Me will be degraded."
Pikei Avot 4:1
Shalom and Peace
Love Ittay