This has been one of the most depressing weeks in modern history as the horror of the tragedy in Haiti unfolds.
One bright spot has been the dramatic response of the Israeli military.
I just spent a week and a half kvetching about the how Israelis are so pushy and always in such a hurry, yet here is a moment in history where that is what is required to save lives.
Watch this report by NBC news to get a sense of their accomplishment:
Andrew Sullivan is a voice that I have have had respect for, for some time. He writes and excellent blog, and is outspoken on issues such as civil rights, civil liberties, and economics. When it comes to Israel, he seems to throw out all of his principles in order to stand with the Palestinians, and against the Israelis.
It was with both disappointment and astonishment that I read his most recent rant against Israel.. He is an efficient writer, and he succeeds in producing more bullshit in just a few paragraphs than I would have thought possible.
To begin with, he exposes his ignorance by conflating Jerusalem with the West Bank. I have just spent more of the day driving around more of Jerusalem ("east" and otherwise) than I planned (I got lost), as well as visiting an actual settlement in the West Bank, so I think I know a little about what I am talking about. Gilo, seen above, is a suburban neighborhood of Jerusalem, and I just drove through it. There is no line distinguishable, and no observer on the ground could consider the apartments there to be "settlements".
For thousands of years, Jerusalem was ruled by a dozen or so different empires, yet it was only divided from 1948 until 1967. This period of Jordanian occupation was noted for the expulsion of Jews and the desecration of our holy sites. Jerusalem has been a majority Jewish city since the early 1800s. Today, residents of Jerusalem are Israelis, be they Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. Jordan has renounced all claims to Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Jews living in Jerusalem, on either side of the line are not "settlers" in any sense of the word.
Yet to Sullivan, Jews continuing to live and build homes in east Jerusalem is a "Fuck You" to the President of the United States. If that is correct, it is a very proud "Fuck You" to the rest of the world as well. Who does he think lives here? There are decedents of Jews who have lived here for thousands of years, decedents of Jewish Holocaust survivors, and Jews who have been kicked out of every Arab country on earth. If there is any place in the world that Jews have the right to live in, it is in Jerusalem. It is sad that he considers that merely this the view that "many extreme Israelis and their Washington allies inhabit."
Sullivan mocks an Op-Ed in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz comparing the settlement freeze to Apartheid, but what is the implication of Sullivan's alternative reality? Would he re-divide Jerusalem along the Green Line as the Swedish recently proposed? Take a look at the history of Green Line, which divided Jerusalem during the period of Jordanian occupation is the line of the 1949 Armistice. Why is the 1949 line, never recognized as a border, so holy to Sullivan and his ilk anyways? For him, it is the boundary between Israel and "other people's land", yet the line really only represents the military high tide in the Arab's quest to destroy Israel from the moment of it's existence until today.
By Sullivan's logic, we should re-divide Berlin while we are at it. Are not the Germans in East Berlin merely settlers on Russian lands, as recognized by the 1945 lines? In Sullivan's world, Muslims should be able to live in Jerusalem on either side of the 49 line, but not Jews. Is it such a stretch to see that policy as Apartheid? Are there other places in the Sullivan's world that Jews should not be allowed to build in, or just in Jerusalem? Yes, it may be hyperbole to compare building an apartment in Jerusalem to Rosa Park's struggle. On the other hand, writing from a country in which an incremental expansion of public health care coverage is routinely compared to Nazism, Sullivan should recognize hyperbole when he sees it.
So here I am in Tel Aviv, and I am about to ingest the holy grail of middle eastern street food, shwarma. Actually, I am in Lod, a small, mixed Arab/Jewish village near the airport where I am staying. Just as I order my food, the guy next to me pulls out a hand gun, and starts saying something to me in Arabic.
While true, the story is not quite as dramatic as it sounds. He was smiling and was actually trying to hand me the gun to hold for some reason. My wife suggested what I was already thinking, "don't touch that." Needless to say, had that scene played out at a restaurant in Denver, people would have screamed, hit the deck, and called the cops. In Tel Aviv, it didn't seem to draw any reaction at all.
Eventually this character decided to put his gun away and went back to his business of being a weirdo hanging out at a schwarma stand. Later, he seemed to be showing off his handgun to all sorts of people who walked by. Upon closer inspection, the guy really seemed to be mentally challenged in some way. My wife remarked, "I can't believe they gave this guy a gun permit" and we decided to take our meal to go.
In a country where automatic weaponry is as common as umbrellas in Seattle, you still need a permit to carry a gun, unlike in the US. Of course, in the US you still need a permit to drive a car, but that doesn't seem to limit the number of cars there. Fortunately, most of the heavy weaponry is in the hands of soldiers, which brings to mind the picture below, titled, "Why nobody robs a 7-11 in Israel"
I know that I have not been posting much to this blog lately. It is not that I have stopped writing, it is just that I have been keeping busy over at the AskMrCreditCard Blog where I write an extensive post almost every day.
There, I am finding and sharing some really great frequent flier mile earning and redeeming strategies. The latest one I have found is a little promotion with US Airways that can get you First Class award to ticket to Europe on any Star Alliance airline for about $1,000, less than the price of a coach ticket most of the year.
I am not talking about business class, which is pretty cool by itself., but an international First Class ticket on an airline like Lufthansa or Swiss. For reference, most domestic airlines like Delta and Continental don't even have an International First Class. Check out this article about Lufthansa First Class.
So How Do I Do It?
Read my article at AskMrCreditCard. I have to say, that this type of award earning strategy has a big drawback, capacity controls. A lot of awards, like first class seats, may only be obtainable if you are flexible, and can book far in advance. Ideally, you really need to book 11 months out, at the moment the seats are released. If you can, the rewards are tremendous!
