"Today it is more costly to move a truck of goods from Nablus to the Port of Ashdod than it is to move the same truckload from Ashdod to China." -Gershon Baskin
(Ashdod is a seaside port town in Israel, Nablus is a a big city in the Palestinian Territories, some 40 miles distance)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
This Week in the Holy Land...
-The Pope's visit, sparking excitement and outrage from various communities in the land
-The two-day Jewish holiday Lag Ba'omer, which is celebrated by everyone and there dog lighting fires in their back yards/trash bins/random parking lots
-Depeche Mode, the incredibly influential synthpop new wave band from the 1980's (come on, you still hum along--genius (its all about the pauses)) is playing a highly anticipated concert in Tel Aviv
-The marking of the Nakba, or the Palestinian term for the disaster that was Israel's independence, forced removal or independent fleeing of Palestinians in 1948 which as lead to a pret-ty big refugee problem in the region, any way you look at it.
Wouldn't want to be the head of police right now! (everyone's watching, keep it together!)
-The Pope's visit, sparking excitement and outrage from various communities in the land
-The two-day Jewish holiday Lag Ba'omer, which is celebrated by everyone and there dog lighting fires in their back yards/trash bins/random parking lots
-Depeche Mode, the incredibly influential synthpop new wave band from the 1980's (come on, you still hum along--genius (its all about the pauses)) is playing a highly anticipated concert in Tel Aviv
-The marking of the Nakba, or the Palestinian term for the disaster that was Israel's independence, forced removal or independent fleeing of Palestinians in 1948 which as lead to a pret-ty big refugee problem in the region, any way you look at it.
Wouldn't want to be the head of police right now! (everyone's watching, keep it together!)
Thursday, May 7, 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0507/p06s02-wome.html
It's so interesting how the pope's visit is highlighting the power struggles here. the PA wants to be independently responsible for his security in Bethlehem, but Israel says they don't have the ability to, and if anything went wrong, it would be Israel that the world would blame, not matter what. And then there is the issue of Nazareth, should the Christian Israeli Arabs be in charge, or the politically stronger Jewish Israelis, who have comparably less vested religious interest in his visit? The same goes for Jerusalem, where Jews will guard over him
It's so interesting how the pope's visit is highlighting the power struggles here. the PA wants to be independently responsible for his security in Bethlehem, but Israel says they don't have the ability to, and if anything went wrong, it would be Israel that the world would blame, not matter what. And then there is the issue of Nazareth, should the Christian Israeli Arabs be in charge, or the politically stronger Jewish Israelis, who have comparably less vested religious interest in his visit? The same goes for Jerusalem, where Jews will guard over him
Sunday, May 3, 2009
So I just got a call from my Israel phone company saying that they noticed a call was made from my phone to a Palestinian number. They wanted to verify that the phone was not stolen... I asked them what other populations I should avoid communicating with? oh, just the Arab ones, and maybe the Indians.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)