News – Real Cooperation (1/2)

Israel/Palestine

Teamwork has prevailed! The Israeli and Palestinian climbing team has scaled to the top of a previously unclimbed Antarctic mountain. Click to see a victorious image with two opposing flags side by side. It’s an inspiring image. The team of eight is made up of two women and six men. An Israeli special forces veteran and two former Fatah activists are among their number. Two of the Palestinians had been in an Israeli jail before and journalist Ziad Darwish’s brother was killed by Israeli troops. Despite this, they put their lives in each other’s hands to accomplish their goal. There is nothing that keeps these two peoples from working together save for petty old hatreds shared by both sides. Relics that need to be shed and left behind.

Sharon backs the Israeli ambassador to Sweden who, in a fit of inappropriate anger, vandalized an art exhibit that contained the image of a Palestinian suicide bomber. Zvi Mazel, the ambassador in question, was removed from Stockholm’s National Antiquities Museum when he interfered with the art of an Israeli artist who had lived in Sweden for 30 years. Rather than loding a formal protest that could be respected, He ripped out electrical wires around the work and threw a spotlight into a pond of red-coloured liquid with a boat carrying the picture of a female bomber who killed 22 people in Haifa. In the background played Bach’s 199 Cantata: My Heart Swims in Blood.

Hence his protest is seen for the childish show of petty emotion that it is and I question why such an immature, emotional, biased person is made the ambassador for Israel to another country, a job in which non-bias and impartiality should be a virtue. Not immaturity and impulsiveness. But never mind that, Sharon backs this child man fully. Mr Mazel defended Friday’s attack on the exhibit, called Snow White and the Madness of Truth, because he said it was “a call for genocide”. That’s what you saw. Perhaps you should have asked the person next to you what they thought of it before your vandalizing of someone else’s work.

The Israeli government appoints a Russian born lawyer that has no diplomatic experience and speaks poor English as ambasidor to Britain. British Jews feel snubbed as they lobbied to keep this man from being appointed. Just adds to the supposition that Israel really sucks at picking good ambassadors. Might be one reason why their PR sucks.

But instead Sharon pushes his fence, no matter who it harms. No matter how many people it will eventually strangle to poverty and desperation. One wonders how many attacks were carried out by those who are having their lives destroyed by this fence. The only thing that worries Sharon now is the questionable legality of portions of the fence.

Israeli authorities are musing possible reprisal to a border attack by Hizbollah guerrillas. It is said any such act of retribution would be “measured” to avoid escalating the conflict.

It’s a little disheartening to see the kind of hate mail that Jewish activist get. It doesn’t seem that many Israeli’s want a real democracy where freedom of speech is the norm. Where you should be able to speak for or against the government without being persecuted and harassed. Of course, we have our own issues with that here in the US, with the ‘shut up’ rhetoric from one side or the other.

A Tale from Tel Aviv that talks of young Israeli soldiers and their free time.

Iraq

Iraqis seem positive on the prospective return of the UN to the playing field. I heard some talk form Kofi on C-Span today that the situation was being looked into, as to the security that can be provided for a return. Even the Bush administration is positive on it, since Kofi seems to agree that elections can’t be held as early as May.

A truck with 500 kg of the boom-boom explodes at the gates of US HQ in Iraq. 20 dead, over 100 injured, mostly Iraqis. Among the dead were two US defense department contractors, three US soldiers and three US civilians.

Final words from Liberal Hawks reconsidering Iraq War positions.

Qatar has decided to forgive most of Iraq’s 4 billion debt to the country. It might forgive the rest later.

Shock for a British shoulder wounded in a friendly fire accident in Iraq. Some say he lost his leg because the surgeons on scene didn’t have a vascular repair kit available, not because there was nothing at all to be done to save his leg. The equipment costs 50 pounds. Reports of this, like many things, vary. Personally I hope it isn’t true.

Afghanistan

US military officials deny that a weekend air strike killed eleven people, including children. That is what Afghan provincial officials say. A military spokesman said the strike during an operation in Uruzgan province’s Charcheno district Sunday killed “five armed men” who left a compound where “mid-level leadership” of the ousted Taliban regime had gathered.

They said, we said. Who do you believe?