'There is No Dialogue with those Murderous Terrorists'

Double Standards 1. No, these words (look at the title) were not expressed by an Israeli politician or any other person holding an Israeli passport. These words were said by the "President of all Palestinians" Mahmoud Abbas, talking about the Hamas.

So yes, I really want to see all these lovely Europeans telling Israel: 'Come on, talk to them, they have changed'. I also want to see the Norwegian PM inviting the political head of the Hamas, Mr. Ismail Hanya, to a meeting with him or Mr. Hugo Chavez praising the Hamas, calling Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, the new Hitler and Israel the new Nazi State.

I guess it won't happen, although, after all, now even the Palestinian president is not willing to "talk" to them because they are "terrorists". They killed their fellow Palestinians in a brutal way, and that is wrong, it is a terrorist act. I only wonder why when they killed Israelis and launched rockets to towns and Kibbutzim (and in my opinion it is fine to attack the army and kidnap soldiers), they were not "terrorists". I wonder why when they attacked Israel and insisted not to recognise its existence, and continue the negotiations for peace, they were not called "terrorists". Why when hundreds of civilians were killed or injured by the Hamas militants they were not terrorists, but freedom fighters, fighting the new "Nazi State"? I just keep wondering.

Double Standards 2. It is not surprising then that the UN Human Rights council decided today, after voting on the subject, to make Israel a permanent agenda item in the Council's meetings. Not Sudan, not Iran, not Zimbabwe, not Russia, not China, not Saudi Arabia, not Zambia, not Egypt, not Venezuela, not Nigeria and not many other countries. Israel is the one the council should discuss about in every single meeting. Israel's actions are considered by this council, consisted of countries like Zambia and China, as the only ones that should be discussed every meeting. I am not saying Israel is not violating human rights in the West Bank, I am just saying Israel is condemned and being targeted by far worse countries, not proportionally to its action, and that is rather frustrating. It is not surprising though, as many of the members of the UN and the 47 members of this council do not recognise the right of Israel to exist. Many others are one-sided countries, which support only one narrative of the conflict. "The Third-World gang" we like to call it, and they are indeed acting like a gang. They are the majority in the UN and they like to target a small country. This council decided not to condemned Sudan, Iran or China for violating human rights, but passed every decision of condemnation it made against one country only; Israel. So let me ask you, why should I trust this council or the UN? It is not surprising also that Israel is the only country without the right to be elected to the Security Council or be part of the main committees. It is just not allowed to. Thank you world, thank you very much. I am sure the three wounded people today are thanking you for not mentioning that the fact their town is being bombed constitutes a human right violation. Thank you once again. Even Kofi Annan, a true pro-Palestinian, who established this council, said in the past that the council is too obsessed with Israel and neglects serious violations of human rights in other countries. He said he thought that by replacing the Human Rights Commission with this council it will stop the excessive focus on Israel. Obviously it did not work out for him. His council is indulging in double standards and hypocrisy.

Back to Gaza. While Mr. Abbas said these words above, about 200 hundred people are waiting in the Erez crossing border with Israel, asking Israel to let them in. There were about a thousand at the beginning of the week, but most of them went back to their houses. Some of the people who are trying to enter Israel fought against it for years (Fatah, as you may know or not, is still holding the first place in terms of killing most innocent Israeli civilians), but now they are scared of the Hamas. I don't know what the right thing to do is in this case. Each decision could lead to a problem - if Israel will let them enter, probably many others will come to the border, asking to enter as well. If not, a humanitarian crisis could erupt. For now, only wounded people, pregnant women and people with foreign passports are allowed to enter Israel. The rest will have to wait for the decision of the new Defence Minister (I don't have connections any longer) and the government. The Supreme Court of Israel stated that Israel should let them enter, as long as they do not pose a security threat to the country.

The present. Israel decided to continue supplying food, electricity and water to the strip, unless Hamas will launch some serious attacks from it. Today (well yesterday), eight rockets landed in Israel, 4 of them in my town. 3 people were wounded and 8 others were "shocked". This is not serious enough to cut off the strip, and I hope both Hamas and Islamic Jihad will not do foolish things that could cause a humanitarian crisis in the strip. For now, the government stated it will not interfere with the internal fighting of the Palestinians and therefore it is not intending to assault the Hamas and invade the strip, unless the majority of Palestinians living in Gaza will call for an Israeli help. I believe it is a wise decision, but some reports are saying some Fatah members are angry about it. In my opinion Israel should not invade the strip and keep the dirty clothes in the hands of the Palestinians. When one invades the strip, everything could go wrong.

Fighting continues. These are the militants who died today while fighting IDF soldiers:
*Suliman Hasan from the Popular Resistance Committee, Halad al-Para and Ahmed Uni from the Hamas and another militant from the Islamic Jihad (his name was not published) were killed in clashes alongside the Gaza border.
*Ibrhim al-Abad from the Fatah and Ziad Blaisha from the Islamic Jihad were killed in a village next to Jenin in the West Bank.

The dove is trying to recover. Israel and the new Palestinian government are planning to hold a peace conference in the following weeks, a conferences that supposes to initiate and ignite the peace process once again. The plans are that both sides will create a momentum that may lead to an agreed peace accord, which will force the Hamas to decide whether to accept it or not. It supposes to be based on the Saudi peace initiative. Let me be sceptic.

Football is helping her (i.e. the dove). Real Madrid played last night against an Israeli-Palestinian "peace team", in a game organised by "The Peres Centre for Peace" (an organisation created by our newly elected president, the Noble Peace Prize winner, Mr. Shimon Peres). The game was held in Israel's national stadium in Ramat-Gan. The new Spanish champions won 8-0, a very embarrassing result, although they did play with all their big stars. The Palestinian players who played in the game, and are living in the West Bank (no Gazian player was able to play), were condemned by the officials of the Palestinian Football Association, but will not be punished because Mr. Abbas allowed them to play. Some Palestinian reporters also did not like the cooperation. I don't understand why they are so upset, as this is a perfectly legitimate and positive initiative. I know it won't bring peace, but it was lovely to see Palestinians, Israeli-Arabs and Israeli-Jews cooperating together, even if they lost miserably. I admire those Palestinian players who agreed to play, despite all the insults they got for doing it. They are the true heroes of their people, and not those militants who do nothing to promote peace.
Refugees. About 85 African refugees entered, illegally of course, Israel in the last two nights from Egypt (the border is wide open). Israel really do not know what to do with them. In the last 6 months, every night there is an average of 50 African refugees, mainly from Sudan, who enter Israel. The reason is that their treatment in Egypt is not good at all, and after they escaped from their terrible lives in their country, I reckon they do not want to suffer further, this time by the hands of the Egyptians. For now there is no direct decision what to do with them, but the local councils are trying to get them jobs and free education, until the government will decide on a policy. Many politicians say that Israel has a moral obligation to help these refugees because we are a "Jewish" state, and thus should not forget how not many countries allowed Jewish refugees to enter their land right before, during, and after World War Two and the Holocaust. I think the treatment should be better though, but I guess when the government will decide on a policy then everything will be clearer. Discussion should be carried on this week or next week.

Homofili nyheter . The homosexual pride parade is about to take place tomorrow in Jerusalem. This parade caused a lot of fuss in the city and created a unity of hate by all three main monotheistic religions. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Christians are constantly protesting against the parade and putting pressures to cancel it. The mayor of Jerusalem - an Ultra-Orthodox himself - decided to allow the parade to take place, despite the pressure. His religious coalition members already alarmed (or possibly threatened?) that the safety of the human beings who are going to march tomorrow is not guaranteed. They, of course, don't call them "Human Beings" but refer to them as beasts.

Economy. The economy of the country is booming. Negative inflation (-0.1%), balanced growth (5.2%), high investment (which is quite surprising as there is negative inflation), lower unemployment (7.6%), high GDP per Capita (22, just a bit lower than France and Italy; higher than the average of the European Union, and then countries like UAE, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal and generally the rest of the world), invitation to join the OECD, more tourism than ever and a stronger currency. This is quite impressing considering the fact the country is experiencing constant warfare, does not posses natural resources and that the US shrank its aid to Israel to $120 million only, after it decided to give more aid to Egypt and Lebanon. Hence the predictions are that during a peace time the country's economy would perform much better. However, 21.6% of the population is still under the poverty line. Socialism is dead, the gaps within the society are becoming bigger (the Gini index is 38.6). Hence, alongside the growth, some hundreds of thousands of people are barely surviving the month.

Cheaper flights. In half a year it is going to cost only 200$ to fly to Great Britain. Unfortunately, by that time Jon's 18 birthday will pass. Bastards.

Culture. My Chemical Romance confirmed it will hold a performance in Israel this summer; "Summer Boom" festival is going to attract some thousands of young people, in the beach of Nizanim; Slide Hampton and the "Cookers" confirmed their participation with some other worldwide and Israeli Jazz players in the upcoming Jerusalem Jazz festival; there is another Jazz festival in Eilat; some other Rock and Trans festivals are going to happen during the summer; Animation Festival in Jerusalem; A lot of theatre productions and Classical concerts are being performed and going to be performed during the summer; The "Book-Mania" they called it, after last week thousands of books were sold across the country.

Weekend. During the last weekend I was supposed to have some fun. On Friday morning I was supposed to go to Tel-Aviv with two friends of mine. On Friday night I was supposed to have a party, for my birthday. On Saturday morning I was supposed to go and visit a friend of mine in a military base next to Beer-Sheva with two of my friends. On Saturday evening I was supposed to go and watch a film. What happened then that all was "supposed" to happen but did not actually happen? I became sick for some reason on Thursday night. This sickness involved only a fever, which reached 40.4 degrees on Friday night. Yes you heard me correctly, 40.4 degrees. The rest of the time it was between 38.5 and 39.5. I survived eventually and celebrated my birthday but I barely had fun this weekend!

Haircut. Yes, after 10 months I finally went to the barber shop. Only some "hairs" survived.