Ali G in da house!
The wickedly funny british comedian Sacha Baron Cohen aka Ali G nearly got his head blown off by two guys in the adjacent room who commited suicide. Read about it here and here.
Roadmap details
The details of the revised roadmap by the Quartet has been scooped by the Jerusalem Post.
BBC bias
The BBC caught red-handed. Take a look at this article on the BBC website. One would think that the top photograph that accompanies the article would be recent. Not so. The photograph was obviously taken months earlier. First of all, it’s been freezing here all week. The way the people are dressed in the photograph is more appropriate for spring or summer, certainly not winter.
The caption under the photograph reads: Manger Square: once the scene of a vibrant market
I asked a friend of mine who was in Bethlehem on Christmas day if this car was located in Manger Square. He told me that there was no car wreckage there. The photograph doesn’t even look anything like Manger Square.
Check out these two photos of the square this past week. No car wreckage.
Just what is the BBC trying to pull?
Who’s afraid of smallpox?
Well I am for one. I’ll be among the 20 percent of the population who will not be eligible to receive the vaccination. It kind of sucks. I wish I didn’t read that damn book on small pox. It’s a frightening disease and I think the less anyone knows about it the better off they are. It’s too late for me though. I know EVERYTHING about it and frankly - it scares the shit out of me.
The health ministry ruled today that there is no current need for a mass vaccination anyway. I have an idea though. The government should say that they are vaccinating everyone but not actually do it. This way Iraq wouldn’t bother launching a scud with a smallpox since they would think that the country is vaccinated. Not too shabby, huh?
Then all we would have to deal with is nerve gas and ebola. Not a bad trade off me thinks. Then again, I’m not prepared for that either.
As of right now I don’t have a gas mask or a sealed room. I’m not aware of any shelters within the vicinity of my house either. Everything I learned in the army about chemical and biological weapons is already forgotten.
Off to a good start, eh?
All I know is that the shit better not hit the fan before I get to see those damn Matrix sequels.
Publishing problems
Haven’t been able to publish in days. Anyone else have this problem?
Every time I hit publish I received the dreaded “unable to find url” page.
Weird. As I type this I’m not even sure whether this will publish or not.
If this works, I’ll be posting when I get home from work.
New Labor platform
The differences between Likud and Labor party have been virtually indistinguishable for the past couple of years. Now that Labor has released their new platform things have changed a bit. They have suddenly taken a hard left turn.
The new platform includes:
- Negotiating with the Palestinians while continuing to fight terror
Huh? Who are they referring to? Who is there to negotiate with? Not the somewhat moderate Sari Nusseibeh - as of yesterday he’s gone. There is no one to negotiate with.
- Unilateral separation if there is no-one to negotiate with, based on what’s Jewish to the Jews, and what is Palestinian to the Palestinians;
That makes sense. Unilaterally pulling out of Lebanon worked so well, so why not the West Bank and Gaza? More importantly, who determines what is Jewish and what is Palestinian?
- a unique governance of the Temple Mount of Jerusalem with respect to the three monotheistic religions;
Ok, I concede. This actually makes sense to me.
- a separation fence; withdrawal from the Gaza strip and evacuation of the Jewish settlements in Gaza;
Considering the separation fence is already being built this is nothing new. I was never a proponent of the settlement of Gaza but the timing is not right for a withdrawal. Hasn’t the party learned from the disaster of the unilateral pullout from Lebanon? Picking up and leaving will just strengthen our enemies.
- diversion of funds from the settlements to socio-economic needs;
Why target a tax-paying segment of the society? Sure, those living in the West Bank receive tax-breaks but this segment of society works for a living and serves in the army. As long as the government allows and continues to encourage Jews to live in the West Bank they should be obligated to provide for them.
- compulsory national service for all;
This is unbelievable. Where was the Labor party when the Tal bill was passed and haredi draft-dodging became legal? Granted, a several members of the party opposed it. But many voted for it. In fact, during it’s first reading the leadership tried to enforce party discipline making it mandatory for all Labor MKs to vote in favor of it.
- abolishing the Ministry for Religious Affairs and automatic granting of citizenship to the parents of soldiers serving in the IDF.
Although I agree with the above wholeheartedly, it’s just another feeble attempt by the Labor party to woo former voters who have jumped ship and switched their allegiance to the Shinui party.
At least now we can actually distinguish the Labor from the Likud party. I can’t imagine that Ben-Eliezer and other Labor hawks actually agree with majority of the platform.
It seems to me that the party is more representative of Mitzna than the actual party membership.
Israel ripe for EU membership?
Excellent analysis on whether Israel is suitable for European Union membership over at Head Heeb’s blog.
Mandatory reading.
Another moron.
Another moron.
Dudu Topaz. The undisputed king of Israeli television has done it again. Topaz will do anything to get ratings. He is a ratings whore.
Dudu Topaz is an “entertainer” who has been involved in several controversies throughout the years. I personally think he is as talented as my right foot.
Some say that Labor lost the election in 1981 when Topaz referred to Likud supporters as “chakhchakhim,” a derogatory name for Jews of sepharic origin during a huge Labor rally.
The Likud exploited the gaff and won the election.
Dudu was investigated for rigging a game show.
Dudu was busted for possessing a large amount of ecstasy and weed.
Now Dudu is in trouble for “biting”a guest on his show.
Bad Dudu.
Labor polling problems?
So it seems that the Labor party primary wasn’t quite as clean as we initially thought.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that three ballot boxes from the primary weren’t counted and that the votes would have changed the outcome of the list. Perhaps Beilin and Dayan jumped ship too soon?
Of course the leadership’s response to this is…..too late! How democratic of them.
The entire news brief:
Three ballot boxes from Labor primaries not counted
Three ballot boxes from the Labor Party primaries that were held last week were only counted today, Israel Radio reported.
According to the radio, if these votes had been included in the official tally it would have changed the places of a number of candidates on the Knesset list.
However, the party said that as the final list had already been handed into the election committee it was not possible to make any changes.
The Attorney General opened an investigation into the Labor party primaries yesterday. There are allegations of voters voting more than once with other people’s identification cards.
This entire election is a sham. It’s costing millions and millions of shekels and the end result is probably going to be just another unity government like we had before.
Student poll sees the future?
Will the allegations and the arrests affect the outcome of next month’s elections?
The students at Blich High School don’t think so. Every year a traditional straw poll is held at Blich High School in Ramat Gan. In the past, their results have been very close to the actual outcome of the real national elections.
The Likud won big with 31.5 percent of the vote. Surprisingly, Shinui came in second with 26.7 percent followed by Labor with only 17.2 percent. The National Union received 9.5 percent followed by Yisrael Acheret (A Different Israel) with 5.9 percent.
The biggest shocker of them all was Meretz receiving only 5.6 percent. The National Religious Party received a paltry 2.1 percent and the Hadash Communist Party only 1.4 percent.
Obviously the school is not a relection of the population of Israel. There aren’t any new immigrants, Arabs or religious students.
The students campaign for their party and many prominent politicians visit the school and address the students. If I recall correctly the students chose the wrong Prime Minister in the past two elections. Last time around in the 1999 election Ehud Barak won the majority of votes and the previous election and in 1996 Netanyahu lost the Blich vote but won the national election. Not a very good record but apparantly in previous years the student’s results have been more accurate.
I think that the straw poll is a good educational experience for the students. I just wonder if there was any illicit playground deals made before the election.
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