Total Eclipse

Political Disclaimer:
Before diving into deeply contentious subjects, I’d like to precede by stating that I am and always have been a member of the Israeli peace camp. I support the Palestinian’s right to self-determination, within the boundaries of the land acquired by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
Having said that, It is often the [...]

Regarding the costs of war, just to put things in perspective [translated from a piece by Brigadier General (res.) Shuki Shichrur, a former chief of staff of the Israeli Northern Command]:
Fallujah lies 70km west-north-west to Baghdad. In 2004, it had between 200 and 300 thousand residents. From early 2004, it was under control of Jihadist [...]

Again I find myself blogging life during wartime.
Tel-Aviv is fucked up like that; An hours drive away, a quarter of a million Israelis are under rocket fire, and here life goes on as usual.
Just a quick recap. In the summer of 2005, Israel left the Gaza strip. In the summer of 2007, Hamas, an Islamic [...]

The view from Tel-Aviv:
I was really nervous all last night. Laying in bed, watching the US Edition of CNN off the intertubes, and frequenting twitter reports from various friends in the states (Hi Corey!) on my iPod.
It was about 4:00 past midnight when Ohio went for Obama. That’s when I knew it was over and [...]

Syrian President Bashar Assad has been signaling through western media that he is interested in resuming peace negotiations with Israel unconditionally.
He urged Israeli Prime Minister Ulmert to try him out, “call his bluff”.
This well-played rhetoric places Israel in a difficult position. Israel can ill-afford to be perceived as war-mongers in the world (as if it’s [...]

Expanded from a discussion I had on livejournal:
Someone: The IAF bombed a building because a rocket launcher was in it- they had no way to know the basement was packed with children, and had they known I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have bombed it.
ME:
Not fucking good enough!
We are judged by our actions, not merely our [...]

For the past day or so I’ve been scouring the net for information on the current grim meathook state of affairs. I’ve been reading both Israeli and Lebanese independant blogs and webzines. I find it fascinating. Some Lebanese blogs have been getting comments in the hundreds. Surpringly, for the most part, discourse has been heated, [...]

Tel-Aviv is a truly magical place.
Go 30 miles to one direction and you have bombings.
Go 30 miles to another direction and you have misery.
Go 30 miles to yet another direction and you have both misery and bombings.
The last direction is the sea, and that’s where most Tel-Avivi people chose to spend today. Some were jogging, [...]

“War is the very crudest of responses and reflects the utter failure of imagination and intelligence in foreign policy. The cycle of poverty, inequality, and hatred will grow worse. Terrorist recruiting will flourish in the aftermath.” – Prof. Thompson Bradley, Swarthmore College
Is that so? I can think of at least 2 wars that led to [...]

I am a foreigner everywhere.
Current events make me sick to my stomach. I really do try and avoid any contact with mainstream media, because it has this nauseating effect on me. I get my news from boingboing and Fortean Times and that’s usually enough.
But once in a while, I get this masochistic urge to burst [...]