Same-same, but different

There is a fundamental difference between the captured Israeli soldiers and the Palestinians held in Israeli jails, which much of the international community seems to disregard completely.

I'll let the esteemed Mr. Ostroff stress that difference.

Hello Cohavniks
I suggest that in our letters and interviews we stress the following which I have extracted from my letter to the Cosatu president.

The media and other opinion makers create the impression that there is a direct comparison between the captured Israeli soldiers and the Palestinians in Israeli jails. They ignore an all-important difference. The families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel know where their loved ones are. They visit them and communicate by telephone. By contrast, the Palestinians deliberately keep the families of captives in a state of unbearable anxiety by holding their captives incommunicado; emulating the late Yassir Arafat. In an exquisite refinement of torture in 1993, Arafat acknowledged that he knew the fate of missing in action soldier Zachary Baumel and handed one half of Baumel's identity tag to Yitzchak Rabin, with a firm promise that more information about Baumel and other MIA's would be forthcoming. He never kept that promise.

The least we should expect from the UN,Amnesty International and politicians who pronounce on the rights and wrongs of the situation, s that they strongly demand that the kidnapped soldiers be accorded the rights set out in the Geneva  Conventions including visits by the Red Cross.
 

You can find more of Maurice Ostroff's writing on his website.

I'm impressed

I'm impressed at Israel's efforts in presenting itself properly on the media.

 

I'm impressed at the media's self-restraint and well-phrased, non-judgemental questions and reports.

 

I tink we can win this one. I really do.

 

I listend to the news earlier, and was quite impressed at Olmert's diplomatic choice of words -- he didn't call it an act of war, he called it a war-like act.

 

On the other hand, he could be just a freakin' PUSSY. But I don't think so, I think he's really taking care to leave a diplomatic option for resolving this conflict.

 

If, however, we do go to war, we'd better do it now, while Jordan and Egypt will stay out of it and Iran is still not "equipped" to do serious damage...

 

But now, it's several hours into this whole debacle, and I don't think the int'l community is being firm enough. No country should tollerate this kind of behaviour, so France's call for "remaining calm" is totally inappropriate.

 

That's off the top of my head.

Convivencia

Hmmm.

I did learn something fascinating today.

On Channel 8 today they had a program on the history of Islam, apparently a British production. The show focused on the Arab conquest of Spain in the 8th Century, and the subsequent thriving of cultural and scientific communities throughout.

The most amazing thing to me seemed the subject of La Convivencia -- the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Toledo near the turn of the millennium, in a school for translators. In this place, scholars came from all over Europe and Africa to exchange texts, learn languages, and translate them into Castillian Spanish, Latin, and Arabic. This was an incomparable time of religious tolerance, and more than that -- religious cultural exchange. To wit, the Church of San Roman (pictures of which can be found here) in Toledo has a steeple designed, architecturally, like a classic Minaret, right down to the arches and markings throughout the building.

The founders of the church had commissioned Muslim craftsmen to design and build the building, seeking this exchange of culture and ideas.

Where is all this today?

While we have celebrations of co-existence, tolerance and open dialogue, it seems we're so caught up in trying to just make peace, that the thought of exchanging ideas for the sake of enriching our own selves through other cultures seems further away than ever before.

I don't propse to bridge this gap any time soon. But for my small part, I've opened a group on Couchsurfing, called (I think appropriately), "La Conivencia ".

See you there.

With a little help from Caravaggio...

Yes, that old italian painter hath given me his works as reference.

The original piece appears here.

Click this image to enlarge.

System Files

That's the title of our new comic.
It's in Hebrew, and it's about a news website, behind the scenes.
This is the first strip, that kind of introduces the characters.
If you can't read hebrew, see if you can come up with your own dialogue and email it to me.

Who knew?

I can draw.
Here's the sketches.
I rock.

Only problem is, it took me like FOREVER. Dammit -- going to have to learn to do it a bit faster and more efficiently. Now I remember how I used to do Ping972... I had it all prepared -- every time I had to draw a comic from scratch, it was so bloody daunting!

Contrary to popular belief, dead fish do NOT swim in bars...

I drew a comic strip. It's in Hebrew, so roughly translated for you anglophiles out there, it goes:

Panel 1:
1st Fish: "So I says to her, you wanna go to my pond or yours?"

Panel 2:
1st Fish: "And she ends up going off with this Japanese swordfish. Stinkin' tourists."

Panel 3:
1st Fish: "Dude, you with me, or what? Hey, dude? Bro?"

Panel 4:
Quote: "Even dead fish swim with the current".

Yes, well. "Tradutorre Traditore." Look it up.

Anyway, it's the first comic I've done in... oh... about four years I'd say? I don't count the photostuff I did with Comic Life last month. That's photos.

Thanks to my dear friend who got me drunk enough to draw this in a bar a couple weeks ago.