Annapolis Peace Conference

One of the things that worried me about the Annapolis Conference was the fact that basic facts were being overlooked. I support making peace with the Palestinians, but Hamas was ignored and it was assumed that Abbas, who is weak, would be able to assert himself over them. I believe Abbas was trying to get a lot of concessions from Israel on core issues such as Jerusalem, the settlements, and the return of Palestinian refugees (who Israel will never allow to return and should not, and I'm not sure they should be compensated either--let the Arab nations who have treated them as garbage for the past 60 years take responsibility for the results of the war they started themselves) without ensuring that he would be able to ensure peace or cessation of violence in return. It was a good start but we have to start talking about the real issues and looking at reality.

Democracy Under Arrest

Pervez Musharraf, the dictatorial leader of Pakistan, had agreed to work with former leader Benazir Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan from her self-imposed exile recently, to make Pakistan's political system more democratic. Musharraf, in his effort to maintain his powers, declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution, and put Bhutto under house arrest with barbed wire and guards. Meanwhile she is trying to work with other opposition leaders to try to replace Musharraf.
Meanwhile, the U.S., which considers Musharraf an ally against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, must contend with the fact that he has not been very effective at fighting terror and is suppressing his own people.

Schoolyard Politics

Obama and Edwards accuse Hillary of sidestepping important questions and of flip=flopping on certain issues, but Hillary claims the criticism is just because she's in the lead.

Willing Ignorance

China, which is Sudan's largest trading partner, has chosen to ignore the atrocities that are being committed in Sudan's Darfur region, effectively supported by China's money. If China threatened to stop buying oil from Sudan, it could have a dramatic effect and pressure the government to stop sponsoring the genocide against the Darfurians.

Rainbows at Hogwarts

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling recently confirmed fans' suspicions that Albus Dumbledore, head of wizarding school Hogwarts, is gay.

Turkey Refuses to Recognize Armenian Genocide

There is currently a proposal in Congress for the U.S. to recognize the WWI-era killing of approximately one million Armenians by the Ottomans as a genocide. Turkey, the modern-day successor to the Ottoman Empire, maintains an official position that it was not a genocide, but rather the Armenians were killed during the general unrest that happened during the Empire's fall, and that the modern state cannot be held accountable for what the Ottomans did. In Turkey, some critics who have called it a genocide have been harshly repressed and accused of insulting Turkishness. Turkey is an ally of the U.S.--we use some of Turkey's military infrastructure to wage our war in Iraq. If we anger Turkey, Turkey has threatened to bar our use of their military bases. What will happen?

Myanmar's Junta Government's Brutality

In the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma), the junta dictatorship government recently violently suppressed protests by monks there. Meanwhile, the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was democratically elected as the leader, was put under house arrest by the government, which refuses to let go of its power.

Jack Bauer Gets Caught

Last week, Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who portrays Jack Bauer on the popular show "24." Was briefly arrested for DUI. I never understood how that guy could actually run around town killing people for 24 hours and not get exhausted and collapse at some point--I know I would.

The Jena Six (Jena, LA)

In Jena, LA, six black students are being accused of beating up a white student. The case grew out of an incident in which a black student asked to sit under a tree in the school that was known to be off-limits to blacks. White students then hung nooses on the tree branch in an act of racial hatred. The school decided to chop down the tree to try to restore racial peace. Unfortunately, if you chop down the tree and the roots remain, then the problem is only partially solved. The fact that they had a "white only" tree and that school officials didn't address this problem shows that they are not doing all they can to remedy the situation.

Iraqi Terrorist Insurgents Disrupt Iraqi Lives

Iraqi terrorists have declared that they will increase their attacks during the holy month of Ramadan--a special spiritual time for Muslims.

Bin Laden's First New Footage In 3 Years!

The intelligence community is going crazy predicting whether Bin Laden will call for a new attack in his newest video--stay tuned!

From the expanses of space to restricted mobility

Lisa Nowak, the jealous astronaut who was caught driving to Florida in a diaper to see her ex, recently got put on parole (including removing her ankle bracelet) but with restricted travel.

Brandeis Graduation 2007

Congratulations Class of 2007!

Norman Finkelstein's Distortions

Norman Finkelstein purports to be a scholar on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but even those whom he repeatedly cites in his work or calls his inspirations (e.g., historian Benny Morris and Robert Novick) call him a fraudulent historian and accuse him of distorting or selectively citing their work. His thesis is that the conflict and the solution are really SO SIMPLE (basically Israel has to do everything the biased UN and ICJ say) and that everything is Israel's fault. However, he often ignores or trivializes the problems of Palestinian terrorism or the repeated military attacks by Arab countries on Israel, which have nearly destroyed the state's existence. The conflict is so simple, he says, and most of the controvery is fabricated by people who want to draw attention from Israel, who is the real perpetrator of violence. Of course, he easily maintains this by dismissing anyone who doesn't agree with him as outside the fold of sane or legitimate scholarship, or lacking in moral values. He essentially rips out pages from the book of Middle East history, selectively ignoring the facts which are not convenient to his point of view, in order to support his ideas. His latest lecture at our campus was a two-hour or so Israel bashing session (sparing the Palestinians the rod) as well as personal attacks on our university and its president, as well as on other scholars in the field.
We must stand up and demand honest intellectual scholarship on this matter.

Digging Himself a Hole

Despite constant criticism, Gonzales continues to dig himself into a hole by maintaining his innocence and effectiveness as the A.G., then claims to not remember specific details and conversations important to the case against him. The public seems not to have confidence in him, but he thinks he can still be effective.

Don Imus Apologizes

Iran's Funny Man

The U.N. Security Council just announced a new, harsher set of sanctions on Iran. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad continues to say Iran will continue on its quest to acquire nuclear energy--for "civilian" uses, of course! The U.N. can continue to issue these sanctions, but Iran just won't listen--how can we take the U.N. seriously this way?

Bush and Chavez Slug it Out

Bush and Hugo Chavez both romp around South America, trying to garner support. Then Chavez launches insults at Bush and claims it's "nothing personal."

Happy 50th Birthday Osama!

Apparently Bin Laden turns 50 years old in March! Hopefully al-Qaeda has mandatory retirement requirements soon.

The Offender Makes His Demands

So North Korea's Kim Jong Il launched missiles, then apologized, and now he's negotiating for increased aid packages and greater economic cooperation with South Korea? Doesn't he know trust takes time to build? He's the one who offended, he shouldn't be setting the terms of negotiations.

Palestinian Unity Comes Up Short

The new pact for a Palestinian Unity Government, signed between Hamas and Fatah, has come up short on world demands. Hamas holds the presidency of the PA, just short of half of the cabinet, and Hamas has agreed to "respect" (not abide by) former agreements between the PA and Israel, while still refusing to recognize Israel's existence. It seems that this agreement was assembled to show to the world a semblance of unity (we'll see if they actually stop killing each other) while trying to win a Saudi offer of aid, as well as end the world embargo on aid to the PA. My guess is that this new government will not hold together well and will not make any advances in the peace process, as Hamas will still not recognize Israel.

Groundhog Speaks the Truth

I never really figured out why we focus so much on a furry little animal to tell us about the weather, he doesn't usually get it right. World trends definitely are easier to predict, though.
Happy Groundhog's Day!

Denying the Truth

Jimmy Carter claims in his book that Israel is the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East. The problem is that groups like Hamas and the PLO, who are considered to be Israel's partners for peace, explicitly declare in their charters and publicly say that they will accept no Jewish state there and that they refuse to even negotiate--in other words, the "occupation" refers to all of Israel, since the whole land belongs to the Palestinians, in their terrorist rhetoric. I asked Jimmy Carter myself how he could support his claim in light of this contradiction, but he just will not recognize facts even if they scream in his face--he simply cited 'statistics' that most of Hamas is moderate and accepts Israel, though their leaders like Khaled Mashal have declared again and again that they will never do this. Just goes to show that even presidents are naive.

Jimmy the Liar

It has been well documented that Jimmy Carter's new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" is full of plagiarism, outright lies and omissions of crucial details, and presents an extremely distorted and unrealistic view of the current Arab-Israeli conflict. The book is in no way academic, and many of of Carter's associates, even those who are not Zionists at all, have withdrawn support from him over the non-objectivity of his work. I encourage you to read some of the criticisms of the book.

The U.N. Bias

There is clearly a global double standard applied in the arena of human rights. Israel, a paragon of human and civil rights in the Middle East, is the focus of the most attention from the rest of the world in this area, when many other worse violators receive scant attention. Israel's actions of self-defense against terrorists are criticized as human rights violations. In fact, Muslim countries have united to form a bloc in the U.N. Human Rights Council (which many of them do not even deserve to sit on, as shown by their own human rights records) to pass forward automatic and regular examinations of human rights in Israel--and you can be sure these are not fair towards Israel. Meanwhile, the Council has not even condemned the genocide in Darfur--only condemning Israel. Israel is the only U.N. member country barred from sitting on the Council! In the recent war with Hizbullah, the Council only criticized Israel, and not Hizbullah, which was firing rockets at Israeli civilians every day!

The Ultimate Shopper

So the U.S. decided to try a new strategy to pressure Kim Jong Il--banning sale of luxury goods (of which he is a major global consumer) to North Korea. Right, that'll work real well. I heard somewhere that he's like the highest spender in the world on cognac.

The Midterm Knockout

Bush gets a double whammy in the two chambers by the Democrats, and then acts like he wants to cooperate?

The Hizbullah Threat

Hizbullah, the Islamic terror group with ties to Iran, led by Hassan Nasrallah, is trying to bring down the democratic administration of Lebanon led by Saniora; allowing this to happen would be disastrous for Lebanon, Israel, and the Middle East as a whole; they must not be allowed to take control from within and then use the system for their own terrorist ambitions.

Chavez and Iran

A Bloodthirsty Regime

United We Must Stand

The international community needs to put up a united face towards Iran. Otherwise, we might end up regretting it and getting stuck in our own squabbles.

The Katrina Tragedy

The Governator