Jewish Democracy

Israel exists as a contradiction – a Jewish Democracy. Inevitably this means one type of life for those who are Jews and another for everyone else. Perhaps this situation could be sustained if Jews were the overwhelming majority in Israel. It is possible, after all, to protect a very small minority (say 2%-5% of the population) from discrimination. But today, within the green line, 22.5% of the population isn't Jewish and their numbers are rising rapidly. No government can protect over 20% of its population from discrimination. Even if the government could the birth rate tells the rest of the story. Unless all American and European Jews get up and move to Israel we can expect the non-Jewish Israeli population to rise well above its current 22.5%. In fact Israel's own numbers estimate (using the medium variant) that by 2020 roughly 26.6% of the Israeli population won't be Jewish. Israel must face the reality that its future must be to find an identity that allows it to be a country of all of its citizens.

Manufacturing Outsiders

For the first time ever Israel has stripped the citizenship of one of its citizens. Nahad Abu Kishaq, an Israeli citizen charged with being a key figure in Hamas as well as being responsible for the deaths of numerous Israelis has had his citizenship stripped. I can't begin to express how illegitimate this action is. Meanwhile, Israel is getting very worried about foreign workers and has convened a government sponsored group to explore how to increase population, the Jewish one that is. How can democracy, which is only supposed to recognize its citizens as individuals, reconcile itself with being Jewish? How can Jews reconcile themselves with a history that leaves no doubt that no form of government, democratic or otherwise can protect them save a government of the Jews for the Jews? How does an ethical person respond to the inability of democracy to deal with the tribal nature of humanity? How do we see the other as ourselves? How do we find a way for us all, first and foremost as people, to live in peace?

Engagement Rings

It was late 2000 and I knew I wanted to marry my girlfriend. So I did what I always do, I researched. After some searching I bought a book called Just Say Yes! How Real-Life Romeos (and Juliets) Popped the Question" by Kathryn Mills, Debbie Appel, & Kristan Ginther. Reading all the different stories put me in the right mood to figure out a meaningful and beautiful way to propose.

Next came the ring. Here are my observations on buying an Engagement Ring:

Continue reading Engagement Rings

False Propaganda

The Christian Science Monitor (one of my favorite websites) has a great article explaining how the 'babies taken from incubators' story during the first gulf war was started and propagated (like most iconic events, it never actually happened). I recognize that the techniques and players are old hat but I thought it would be interesting to read how a main stream paper plays the story. In the general CSM tradition it plays it pretty straight.

Freedom Insurance

How to track civil rights in Israel? Well the Israeli government is trying various things to shut down Adalah, a civil rights group in Israel that specializes in lawsuits over the violation of the civil rights of Israeli Arabs. As near as I can tell these guys are the Israeli equivalent of the ACLU, at least for Arabs. This is the sort of organization that is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. If they are finally shut down this will speak volumes. That they are still open and able to operate gives me hope.

Talking about defending democracy, tonight I heard a radio program by Greg Palast, an investigate reporter. He is another example of what it takes to defend democracy. I just put in an order for his book.

Of late I realized that my whole attitude towards organizations like the ACLU,EFF and Southern Poverty Law Center are all wrong. I treat them as charities who deal with various nasty issues like the DMCA or the various awful bits of damage Disney inflicts on America. In reality they are really just a form of insurance. You have health insurance? Life insurance? Well now you have freedom insurance. The thing about insurance is that you have to pay your premium every year or your coverage lapses. Freedom insurance isn't any different. Unfortunately there will always be those who for greed or ideology will try and strip us of our freedoms. If freedom is to survive we have to make sure that there are always those who are in a position to oppose them. This is where your freedom insurance premiums come in. By paying up each and every year, year after year, you help to make sure that you get to keep your freedom. So pay your freedom premium today.


Arabs in Israel

Traditionally Israeli Arabs have stayed out of terrorist activities. I can't speak for all the reasons this has been the case but mostly I suspect it's because they are scared of leaving Israel. Israel is a deeply biased society that treats its Arab citizens badly. They are discriminated against on every level. Each year a report from someone or another is released illustrating yet again that Arab citizens receive less government funding per capita than Jewish citizens, they are discriminated against in employment, discriminated against in house, get a worse education, etc. That Israel is party to such discrimination is a deep and lasting mark of shame on Israel. Something Israel needs to answer for to the world.

Yet, Israel provides Palestinians a material quality of life far higher than they can get any where else in the Arab world. More even than that Arab citizens are just that, citizens. They have the right to vote, form parties, etc. Legally speaking (in theory anyway) there is no difference between an Arab and Jewish Israeli. None of this excuses Israel's treatment of its own citizens. But in the middle of a bloody awful war of attrition most Israelis are not willing to overly concern themselves with the details of everyday Arab life in Israel. That all having been said the relationship of Jew to Arab in Israel has been predicated on Israeli Arabs not involving themselves in terror or more generally becoming a fifth column. That relationship now appears to possibly be breaking down.

My main concern is not so much that many Arab Israelis will start becoming part of terrorist attacks as much as many Jewish groups latching onto the growing figures as an excuse to make the lot of Israeli Arab citizens much worse. Collective punishment, in lieu of any other effective mechanism, is Israeli government policy. The threats to strip Israeli Arabs of their citizenship is a potent one and its possible abuses are obvious. Israel is going to have to find a way to be a state of all of its citizens. Discrimination against any of its citizens must stop.

Human Shields

War warps a society. Israel has had a practice of using human shields, local people who it grabs and forces to knock on the doors of houses it wants to enter in order to warn the occupants to leave or face the army. In theory this is a non-combat role, in reality it is threatening the lives of innocents to protect Israeli soldiers. The Israeli supreme court would have likely ruled this behavior illegal had the army not promised to stop it. Which of course makes the death of Nidal Abu Muhsein, a 19 year old human shield, all the more awful as it came long after the army's promise in May of 2002 to stop the practice of using human shields. This is just one example of the rot that sets in when one society occupies another.

SPAM

I want to thank the folks at http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/system/services/e-mail/spam.shtml for reminding me of a very old trick. In most mail systems if you send yourself mail of the form joe+hotmail.com@foo.bar it will be delivered to joe@foo.bar. This is great for signing up to e-mail lists (that you honestly want to get mail from) because you can trivially filter on the + and you can keep track of which e-mail list is sharing your name with whom. This is just a rehash of the old 'fake middle name' trick that was used to track snail mail mailing lists. It's the really obvious ideas that are the most useful. In my case I own my own domain so I can actually just use alternate e-mail address (e.g. spam@goland.org).

I also decided to get a mail filter to check for spam. I literally receive over 50 pieces of spam a day. That's what I get for having a 10 year old e-mail address. The winner was Mail Washer ($20 donation). It has a nice interface, automatically hooks into the major spam black lists, the heuristics seem to work well, the mail preview works great and it's free. The only downside is that it only supports POP. This is probably a show stopper for most folks but in my case it's fine. BTW honorable mentions go to Spam Detective,SpamEater Pro and PocoMail.