Israel news round-up.
Domestically, the Jew-ligans (thanks to eumelia for the term!) are continuing their bigotry-based violence, though there's at least some police response. Luckily, someone realized that if you use bombs against the left-wing Jewish Israelis you need to find something even more extreme to use against the Arab Israelis (after all, you can't mistreat Arabs and Jews in the same way or you spoil the whole racist ideology, even if those dirty traitors deserve more!), and rather than do so they're back to death threats against the former.
There are a few promising news stories about the peace process these days - Lebanon and Israel are apparently mulling a non-aggression treaty, the Saudis put a new Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal on the table, and the Israeli government (spearheaded by someone who, if Livni gets a few more critical members in her coalition, will still be in power in the coming year) is talking about giving the Palestinian Authority security control in more West Bank cities. Of course, that just means it's about time for Islamic Jihad and/or HizbAllah to shoot a barrage of rockets at Israel, or for their to be some other type of attack (no, I'm not just being cynical - when a group's power hinges on showing itself as strong opposition to a force its constituents don't like, that group has a vested interest in maintaining the conflict between that force and its constituents). Since that same Israeli leader, head of what's nominally the most left-wing of the mainstream Israeli political parties, is pulling out the old, "Oh, we want peace, so if there isn't an agreement it's the other side's fault" b.s., maybe the Islamic paramilitary groups won't need to orchestrate an attack to hinder the peace process (I guess every cloud does have a silver lining?). Alternatively, Egypt's attempt to help recreate a unified Palestinian government might succeed and prompt Israel and the western world to once again refuse to have anything to do with the Palestinian leadership. Hey, who know, maybe it'll even all work out?
Meanwhile, in the West Bank clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinian farmers continue, though Israeli politicians aren't happy with Abbas for pointing out that that's a problem, and I'm wondering if there won't be a delayed response to the IDF evacuating three illegal outposts, since the initial response was so quiescent. Lets hope not, if for no other reason than that I signed up to volunteer with the olive harvest on Wednesday.
The "we want volunteers" email says to bring your Israeli ID card, which is a bit of a problem for me as I don't have one. I figured it'd be prudent to ask if they still want me, as I know foreign nationals sometimes increase the tensions, which rather defeats the purpose, so sent an email. So, to end this entry on a lighter note, for your entertainment, here's an example of why I check the spelling of the words in my Hebrew messages before sending.
The English translation of what I would have originally sent is below.
Hi, I want to volunteer but where to me an identity card - I'm America (This one was actually a matter of accidentally using a Hebrew transliteration of the Arabic adjective 'Amrikiya', which the online dictionary thought was closest to the Hebrew noun form 'Amrika'). Is it possible to volunteer with my dragon (I have both a U.S. and an Israeli one because of my father being Israeli), or will that cause spellings? Thanks!
For those who can and care to read it, the Hebrew I eventually sent (which I'm sure still has some mistakes, but I hope nothing as glaring as the earlier issues) is below. Incidentally, the organizer wrote back and said they don't have a problem.
היי,
אני רוצה להתנדב אבל אין לי ת. זהות - אני אמריקנית. אפשר להתנדב עם הדרכון שלי (יש לי גם מארה"ב וגם מישראל בגלל האבא שלי שישרשלי), או זה יגרם בעיות? תודה!
רחל
In the meantime, tonight is the start of Simchat Torah, and even I'm rather surprised at my lack of interest in doing something for it, but that probably deserves its own post.
There are a few promising news stories about the peace process these days - Lebanon and Israel are apparently mulling a non-aggression treaty, the Saudis put a new Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal on the table, and the Israeli government (spearheaded by someone who, if Livni gets a few more critical members in her coalition, will still be in power in the coming year) is talking about giving the Palestinian Authority security control in more West Bank cities. Of course, that just means it's about time for Islamic Jihad and/or HizbAllah to shoot a barrage of rockets at Israel, or for their to be some other type of attack (no, I'm not just being cynical - when a group's power hinges on showing itself as strong opposition to a force its constituents don't like, that group has a vested interest in maintaining the conflict between that force and its constituents). Since that same Israeli leader, head of what's nominally the most left-wing of the mainstream Israeli political parties, is pulling out the old, "Oh, we want peace, so if there isn't an agreement it's the other side's fault" b.s., maybe the Islamic paramilitary groups won't need to orchestrate an attack to hinder the peace process (I guess every cloud does have a silver lining?). Alternatively, Egypt's attempt to help recreate a unified Palestinian government might succeed and prompt Israel and the western world to once again refuse to have anything to do with the Palestinian leadership. Hey, who know, maybe it'll even all work out?
Meanwhile, in the West Bank clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinian farmers continue, though Israeli politicians aren't happy with Abbas for pointing out that that's a problem, and I'm wondering if there won't be a delayed response to the IDF evacuating three illegal outposts, since the initial response was so quiescent. Lets hope not, if for no other reason than that I signed up to volunteer with the olive harvest on Wednesday.
The "we want volunteers" email says to bring your Israeli ID card, which is a bit of a problem for me as I don't have one. I figured it'd be prudent to ask if they still want me, as I know foreign nationals sometimes increase the tensions, which rather defeats the purpose, so sent an email. So, to end this entry on a lighter note, for your entertainment, here's an example of why I check the spelling of the words in my Hebrew messages before sending.
The English translation of what I would have originally sent is below.
Hi, I want to volunteer but where to me an identity card - I'm America (This one was actually a matter of accidentally using a Hebrew transliteration of the Arabic adjective 'Amrikiya', which the online dictionary thought was closest to the Hebrew noun form 'Amrika'). Is it possible to volunteer with my dragon (I have both a U.S. and an Israeli one because of my father being Israeli), or will that cause spellings? Thanks!
For those who can and care to read it, the Hebrew I eventually sent (which I'm sure still has some mistakes, but I hope nothing as glaring as the earlier issues) is below. Incidentally, the organizer wrote back and said they don't have a problem.
היי,
אני רוצה להתנדב אבל אין לי ת. זהות - אני אמריקנית. אפשר להתנדב עם הדרכון שלי (יש לי גם מארה"ב וגם מישראל בגלל האבא שלי שישרשלי), או זה יגרם בעיות? תודה!
רחל
In the meantime, tonight is the start of Simchat Torah, and even I'm rather surprised at my lack of interest in doing something for it, but that probably deserves its own post.