If you have time for some interesting reading today, here are two articles that I thoroughly enjoyed.
A book review which reminded me what makes book reviews worth reading. Check it out, it’s both funny and profound.
And a really great article on the reason why menstruation exists. Loved it!
I’m a happy person today because I finished editing my article, submitted it on time, got Klara to fall asleep, and can catch up on my entertainment reading.
Horrible. Passover is approaching and Israeli newspapers in the last days were filled with “terror threats are always greater in holiday season since at those times there are more opportunities for terror,” while calming “Hamas is not interested in another escalation right now”. And then just now I read that “terror returned to buses”:
21 hurt in bombing on Jerusalem bus
Two buses catch on fire on Moshe Baram Road in the capital’s East Talpiot neighborhood as a result of explosion; 2 seriously wounded, six in moderate condition, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4793280,00.html
Previously today:
Hamas attack tunnel discovered in Israel
Less than 2 years after Operation Protective Edge, the IDF, using advanced technology, discovered the tunnel in the Eshkol regional council area; it was meant for an attack by Hamas’s elite ‘nokhba’ unit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4793038,00.html
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How horrible! I can’t believe buses are being bombed again. I mean, I can believe it but it’s too bad.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/
Don’t like the way the article is framed (shame, financial impotence, ugh!), but I think the bigger point is that there’s a reason why Bernie and Trump are popular. Something’s not right and it *is related to the economy.
*There’s another point I want to make about how these articles are written. With the nation-state no longer willing and able to provide for mental health or basic social services for its citizens, people are now urged to seek therapy in public. Which is just wrong for so many reasons. Bare your soul, reveal the most intimate details of your life, your vulnerabilities, in front of complete strangers on social media, 99% of whom will just troll you back with that information. Like, make sure you include the most wretched details about your life on your gofundme page so maybe someone will toss in $5 out of pity.
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Sounds weird and kind of funny:
No kidding: Pentagon under fire for wasteful $6.1 million Afghanistan goat project
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/15/no-kidding-pentagon-ran-fancy-italian-goat-project/
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I think we’d all prefer Pentagon to spend money on goats than on warfare. A failed goat herd is better than a failed bombing campaign.
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http://www.vox.com/2016/3/21/11275354/saudi-arabia-gulf-washington
How Saudi Arabia captured Washington
America’s foreign policy establishment has aligned itself with an ultra-conservative dictatorship that often acts counter to US values and interests. Why?
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Short answer: oil. The only way out is to render oil irrelevant. Or largely irrelevant. When that happens, we will see enormous changes everywhere around the world.
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RE Saudi Arabia:
\ Бодро вставшие с колен россияне неожиданно потеряли третье место по военным расходам. Первые два, естественно, у Штатов и Китая. А третье теперь у саудовцев.
http://sergeyoho.livejournal.com/128381.html
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Netanyahu, Putin met amid reports of aerial incidents over Syria
Russian fighter jets have reportedly fired at Israeli aircraft at least twice, while in recent days a Russian jet was scrambled to intercept an IAF plane; Kremlin denies reports.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4795045,00.html
I know how you feel about Russia, but I hope for Israel that we won’t find a new enemy in Russia after some incident with a bad end.
Now for something nice – Happy Passover to you!
Vehicles making their way to Seder feasts around the nation began crowding Israel’s roads on Friday as Jews all over the world prepare to celebrate Passover, which marks the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt, from slavery to freedom.
…
Quite a few Israelis are expected to celebrate Passover abroad. The Israel Airports Authority said over a million travelers are expected to pass through the Ben-Gurion International Airport during the seven-day holiday, with some 6,900 departures and landings – a 14 percent increase compared to last year.
The IDF has also made preparations ahead of the Passover holiday, and has closed off all crossing points between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Israeli territory for 24 hours from midnight Friday until midnight Saturday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4795070,00.html
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Obviously, I don’t want hostilities between Russia and Israel to begin. Let’s hope, though, that even Putin is not that dumb. If the Russians were trounced by the Ukrainian army, imagine what IDF would do to them.
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An Israeli singer had his passport torn by border guards at Moscow airport because of looking gay while travelling a Eurovision event:
But I am more worried whether the following news mean religious indoctrination even at supposedly secular schools:
Education Ministry’s Jewish culture program to be expanded
The Ministry of Education expands the current program to grades 3, 4 and 9; it is designed to provide a deeper connection to Jewish heritage and identity.
…
In 2009, then-Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar, worked hard on expanding Jewish studies, initiating the program known as Israeli Culture and Heritage, which was expanded to grades 5 and 8. Within the framework of the program, it was decided that the students would be obliged to fully study the weekly Torah portion in grade 6, the prayer book in grade 7, and the Mishnah called Pirkei Avot in grade 8.
The program was extended to include student trips to the City of David site in Jerusalem, as well as Hebron and Tel Shilo. Former Education Minister Shai Piron also made it clear that there is a need to expand the program at the time.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4794762,00.html
Am I the only person in Israel not seeing it as something good? More religion and Right wing propaganda? The latter is so since Hebron is quite a controversial place:
[wiki] The Israeli–Palestinian conflict in Hebron refers to an ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Hebron has a Palestinian majority, consisting of an estimated 208,750 citizens (2015)[1] and a small Jewish minority, variously numbered between 500 and 800.[2] The H1 sector of Hebron, home to around 170,000 Palestinians, is governed by the Palestinian Authority.[3] H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians is under Israeli military control with an entire brigade in place to protect some 800 Jewish residents living in the old Jewish quarter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict_in_Hebron
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You are right to be concerned. This does sound like a creeping transformation of the country into a more and more religious state.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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