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A Short Update

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Clarissa

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I know I haven’t posted anything interesting for a few days and I’m sorry! Classes have begun and I need to get used to the new schedule and figure out my routine. Since I had no actual vacations, I have trouble staying awake long enough to teach my 4 courses.

My classes run one after another this semester, with only 15-minute breaks between them. I don’t mind because they are all in Spanish. It’s hard for me to switch from Spanish to English and back but this semster I don’t have anything in English.

All of the courses are higher-level which is also great. I’m very happy with the students this year because they are very enthusiastic, engaged, and very advanced. I will have to change half of the activities I prepared because these students are too advanced for them.

I promise to post something profound as soon as I can think of it.

14 responses to “A Short Update”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Don’t worry, the racist comments have been more than enough entertainment the last few days.

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  2. el Avatar
    el

    Waiting for new posts. 🙂

    Since SB and I had a long discussion previously about the three murdered teens, I wanted to comment on this latest post, where he’ll hopefully see it:

    A senior Hamas official admitted for the first time on Wednesday that the organization’s armed wing, the Kassam Brigades, was behind the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Nafatli Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah in the West Bank in June.
    The Hamas official, Salah al-Aruri made the comments during a conference of Islamic clerics in Turkey. He praised the “heroic action of the Kassam Brigades who kidnapped three settlers in Hebron.”
    http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/In-first-Hamas-official-takes-credit-for-kidnap-and-murder-of-Israeli-teens-371703

    Meanwhile, Israel (hopefully, not 100% sure yet) succeeded to kill Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif. Hamas promised to fire at at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion international airport at 6 a.m. tomorrow (“Hamas warns foreign airlines: Avoid Israel starting 6 A.M. Thursday”).

    LIVE UPDATES
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.611486

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    1. Stringer Bell Avatar
      Stringer Bell

      Ah, back to your favorite topic: justifying the killing of civilians. I mean, why even bother posting? What information would you need in order to go ‘Hmm, maybe killing civilians ain’t right, we should stop’?

      Like, when the Israeli officials very clearly said they didn’t have any proof it was Hamas, it’s not like you changed your mind about the brutal massacre of Gaza civilians. We all saw you cheering for more war anyway (until there is ‘quiet’).

      So, why make this point now?

      https://twitter.com/emilylhauser/status/502167615360745473

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        \\ What information would you need in order to go ‘Hmm, maybe killing civilians ain’t right, we should stop’?

        Everybody in Israeli government, both Right and Left, agrees no peace is possible with Hamas in power. Even long-term quiet, which wouldn’t cost too much in the end to us, is impossible with strong Hamas. How can one weaken Hamas without hurting civilians? Left parties support weakening Hamas and then attempting to reach an agreement with help of other players (Arab countries, Europe, etc)

        \\ Gosh, I wonder what Israel wld do if Palestinians had done this to Tel Aviv

        If Palestinians could do that, they would attempt to kill or chase away every Jew in Israel. Fulfilling Hamas’s demands for a sea port would help them get better weapons and kill more Israelis though.

        May be, you would like “Angenda” interview below. It’s conducted in Berlin and no party is an Israeli Jew. They seem objective (=/= right about everything).

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    2. Stringer Bell Avatar
      Stringer Bell

      Btw, you must’ve very satisfied by the Ferguson police’s reaction to the whole thing. Black teen threatens a policeman, gets shot to death, the community threatened, their first amendment rights suspended, media people threatened and shot at, tear gas thrown in people’s backyards, tanks rolling in the neighborhood.

      El says: “Proportional response*! The police should not stop until there is quiet!”

      *Not really, though. The police would have to kill at least 50 people (including 10 children) for this to be a proportional response, Israeli style. It’s a start, however.

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        Comparing Ferguson with Israel / Palestinian conflict is ridiculous.

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      2. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        “The police would have to kill at least 50 people (including 10 children) for this to be a proportional response”

        – Who says they are not going to? I wouldn’t put anything past them at this point.

        I’ve been listening to Glenn Beck every day since Michael Brown was killed and I’m not very optimistic, to put it mildly.

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  3. xykademiqz Avatar
    xykademiqz

    Have you finished “The Interestings”? What do you think?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      No, I’ve been so insanely busy that there’s been no time for fun reading. I’m still at work even now, at 17:18.

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      1. xykademiqz Avatar
        xykademiqz

        Me too! Workaholics unite! 🙂

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  4. el Avatar
    el

    A Jew, who supports Palestinians, went to a pro-Palestinian march in Boston:

    Puppies, babies, and discomfort: reflections on the Mass March for Gaza

    “Palestine, you’re not alone–bring the intifada home!” reminds me of attacks on Jews and on everything Jewish in Europe, like (made in Europe) kosher products in England. Also, reminds of American journalist killed by IS (= ISIS) terrorist. This terrorist is from England and spoke in English with a British accent. He promised to attack American citizens, if Obama does anything against ISIS’s right for freedom. (Those were his words, seriously, as I remember them from TV.) Also, another US journalist was shown, which supposedly’ll be killed when Obama does anything against IS. Unlike Israel, Obama will have no problem with doing whatever he likes, despite Western captives.

    “The Islamic State had not previously executed American citizens publicly. The video was posted after the United States resumed air strikes in Iraq for the first time since the end of the US occupation in 2011.”

    On Israeli TV I heard that our position was improving. After this murderous video:

    Germany’s development aid minister, Gerd Mueller, on Wednesday accused Qatar of financing the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

    Since Qatar finances Hamas and demands radicalization of Palestinian position (*), joining a group of countries against it would be in Israel’s interests. As I understood, this group would / could include Abu Mazen too.

    (*) Senior Fatah official claims Qatar claimed it would banish Hamas leader if he agrees to Egypt’s compromise offer in indirect negotiations.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560750,00.html

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  5. el Avatar
    el

    Watched this video about French Jews

    Kind of funny and sad how one person says “I don’t accept the idea that France is antisemitic.” However, everything else in the video proves the opposite. And, as is said at the end, it’s not only France. Without Israel, where would they go?

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  6. el Avatar
    el

    The first 20 minutes of the video contained an interesting discussion about Jews in Europe and Israel / Gaza. One of guests is a Druze Israeli, an inter-faith educator and one of his jobs is at Jewish museum in Berlin. He talked about similarities between Israel and other Middle East countries, like Iran (18:40), f.e. no constitution. One of important differences in his eyes is that “in Israel there is still no escalation of the image of the other as being a threat. It’s developing into this direction and that’s why we are facing attacks on Muslims, Palestinian Arabs on the Israeli daily life.” –> Here I want to add something: the recent cases of attacks were happening in the middle of the current cycle of violence. During war, violence always raises, but afterwards things tend to calm down. I am not sure which period he has in mind in the above quote, and definition of a time frame is important here.

    Liked some other parts of the interview with 3 guests too.

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  7. el Avatar
    el

    I found a book by a historian from Univ. of California which seems interesting:

    “Esau’s Tears: Modern Anti-Semitism and the Rise of the Jews” by Albert S. Lindemann

    I found summary of its main points, but unfortunately its on White Nationalist website. If you want, I can link here or send a link. Even from a summary on such a website, Lindemann seemed an intelligent person, not somebody who blames Jews for antisemitism, but studies the interplay of fantasy and reality in anti-semites’ minds.

    Today’s update:
    – At least 130 rockets, mortars fired on Israel, striking an Ashdod synagogue; 4-year-old killed by mortar fire. (Israeli security source says shell that killed Daniel Turgerman was fired from UNRWA school in Gaza.) Three were lightly wounded and a 25-year-old was in critical condition. Hamas says they aim for Ben Gurion International Airport.

    – Hamas executed 18 Palestinians Friday for allegedly collaborating with Israel during the Gaza war. Friday’s killings came a day after Israel killed three top Hamas military commanders in an airstrike on a house in southern Gaza Strip.
    VS
    Hamas: We are not ISIS

    – Hunt for German neo-Nazis was ‘complete disaster’
    Germans botch search for group of neo-Nazi who killed eight Turks, Greek man, police officer in far-right murder spree between 2000-2007.
    …
    “In the best case the comprehensive failure of many of those involved resulted from simple lack of interest,” the panel said in its 1,895-page report. But so many mistakes were made that one might even be justified in suspecting “deliberate sabotage.”
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4561998,00.html

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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