June 25, 2003
Haitus
There will be little to no blogging until after July 21. Unlike some people I can't simultaneously blog and write a dissertation.
June 20, 2003
June 19, 2003
Birds of a feather... part II
I went to the annual Boston celebrates Israel festival which was held at the BostonWorld Trade Center last Sunday. Usually the festival is held outdoors, but due to security concerns it moved to an indoor venue this year; unfortunate move in my eyes because it is in essence a small victory to any potential terrorist. The festival was decent, although I would like to think there's more to celebrating Israel than buying Israeli made Judaica and eating falafel. But of course, no Israeli festival is complete without the requisite anti-Israel protests near the venue. This year's turnout was pretty small; I estimated about 25-30 people, many of whom were virulently anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Jews. They had two particular obnoxious people yelling through a megaphone: one who mocked Israel because no one wants to visit (maybe because his heros were busy blowing up buses and Bat-Mitzvahs to kingdom come). This year also provided a distrubing yet ultimately unsurprising treat:
That's right, those were white supremacists protesting along with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Which just goes to show that Jew hatred is one thing that Arabs, white supremacists and... Jews can agree upon.
June 11, 2003
Teacher of the Year
Congrats to my dad for winning the Junior Achievement Teacher of the Year Award! That definitely makes for a nice retirement present.
The inevitable
You knew it was coming, after yesterday's botched assassination attempt. I have little doubt that Hamas had this in the works for quite awhile and that the assassination attempt just gave them an immediate reason to unleash murder. The bombing is just another reason why the attack on Rantisi was foolish. Understand that I have no love for the man and frankly I believe his head belongs impaled on a pike in front of the Knesset. But had the IDF not tried to kill him and this bombing occurred anyway, it would have conclusively demonstrated that any goodwill gestures made by Israel are meaningless. Instead, now it just looks like a revenge attack, which, to much of the world, Israel deserved.
By the way, I just caught Rinat on ICQ and she's ok. She was on a bus at the time, 800 meters from the one that blew up.
June 09, 2003
Close to home
Given that Israel is such a small country, it was only a matter of time until someone in the blogosphere personally knew a terror victim. Get well soon Kenny!
June 03, 2003
Blogger's dilemma
The problem with being a sedentary blogger is that when trying to determine what's going on in far away places, we often stuck with deciding between Dr. Pangloss and Chicken Little.