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Blessed be you, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth news from Ha'Aretz.

It's a Jewish in-joke.

Hezbollah is known for making boasts without anything to back it up.

Yeah, i remember how they said they'll hit an Israeli destroyer at sea in the first week on the war, heh.

See for example here or here

More amazing it took so long to hit this site. This was reported by Haaretz as early as 31st August http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750483.html, and it reported more extensively on how Hezbollah compromised IDF communications since then. /. seems to hate people trying to register new accounts. Hence, I am an anonymous coward.

What made-up statistics? Israel's number of nuclear weapons? Actually, "100-400" better represents the range. Check out the Federation of American Scientists discussion of the topic. They low-ball the number compared to other's that I've read, but they have a pretty nice discussion of the issue.

For some background on the subject, you might find the history of Mordechai Vanunu interesting. The capture was especially interesting.. He was quite clever, apart from his weakness for women. Because he did this while being moved, Israel had to change their prisoner transportation policies.

Why don't you 'assume' something about the photographer...... after all, he did said that he manipulated the images. It wasn't the evil republicans. LOL

pwnage below:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?ite mNo=747018&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1

"The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters.

Israel, as the party involved in the fighting (You can't really say Lebanese are fighting back), is naturally biased.

Your family sources are biased too. Israeli media is biased aswell. No wonder your radical point of view.

Of course everything has bias, but you should very well ask questions about some beliefs you hold dear. I think this would a good place to start.

And occupiers and settlers by definition are not civilians. You make the israelis sound like innocents in all this. Don't forget they didn't hesitate to destroy the USS Liberty

"Rockets" have no guidance system. They are purely ballistic. The various "Katyusha" Hezbollah fires are not noticably different from the types the Soviets fired at the German in WWII. Hezbollah does have a few cruise missiles and medium range missiles with inertial guidance systems, But I have not seen evidence that they have been using them against Israeli cities. They did successfully attack an Israeli warship with a cruise missile.

Since, as the question states, there are other countries doing this we should have some recent historical data to back up such claims.

Each country's experience with photo ID cards is indeed different from every other country (not to mention, the experiences are evolving--the photo ID in the US for the first 10-20 years they were omnipresent (1970s and 1980s) was heavily rooted in financial transactions (everybody and their grandmother paid for their groceries with checks when I was a kid.) Today, financial transactions are becoming far less dependent on ID, and if you open an account online or via mail, you don't even have to show ID once.) What's funny to me is that IDs are, in my mind, an old-fashioned solution to the issues of verifying identity, when better, less centralized solutions already exist. Alas, governments like the cult of the ID.

Quite a lot of Europeans and Asians might be defending ID cards...their experience with ID cards tend to be very bureaucratic in nature--though a lot of those bureaucratic transactions are performed in less ID centric countries with other identification processes which are just as viable/effective/fraud-free (and sometimes, cheaper, since ID cards and the infrastructure required for them are expensive.) Since bureaucratic processes are just not targets for fraud, to imply that the cards don't invite fraud is fatuous, because other countries can do the same processes without the fraud. It's when the card is burdened with transactions that could invite fraud (such as granting of immediate credit) is where ID fraud begins.

There is something I call the "photo ID culture" which sets in...it's the idea that people expect certain types of transactions to require/demand photo ID because similar transactions are done with ID, when in reality the ID may add nothing to the security of the transaction. The recent push in the US for ID for voting is an example of this. In a lot of instances, people coming from National ID countries are advocates of the photo ID culture of that country and therefore can't really imagine it any other way.) Since the acquisition of ID in each country is typically accompanied by a milestone (age in National ID countries, driving rights in the US) then the initial acquisition of the ID is looked at in a positive light (the idea that the ID is liberating.) I think the average slashdotter realizes that this is a farce, in that the ID enrollment process is highly intrusive, and the burden of carrying around the card involves a burden of proof that falls on the citizen, and not one that falls onto the state.

The summary of the above is that the ID experience in a lot of nations is not, strictly speaking, malcious, it's just not particularly useful or justifiable. (Keep in mind, I find there is a malice involved in requiring that someone be photographed and enrolled in a computer system they don't want to be in. If it's so nice and unobtrusive to have an ID card, why should a citizen be forced to have one?)

Modern day (non-nazi) examples of ID abuse come from Israel and South Africa. Israel has used its ID cards (which do indicate the religion of the card holder) as a way of controlling movements of its population within particular areas, and, frankly, as a way of hassling Palestinians (which became so severe a few years ago that it earned a rebuke from the UN.) Though here's a recent example.

I think the Israeli examples are ideal, because they show how individuals can be effectively castrated by the government if their ID card is removed. More than just the metric "can the police ask for ID card simply by walking down the street" the metric "am I human/citizen and can I survive uninhibited?" is a great way of testing the negative effects of an ID card.

South Africa, of course, used ID cards similarly, and they were key in maintaining Apartheid (their ID cards did in

A professor at the same Univerity (the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) just
won a noble prize in game theory.

The english site of Ha'aretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/583841.html has a piece describing a visit a rabbi and a reporter pay to the Dalai Lama. It starts of with finding similarities between judaism and buddism, and in the end list a few, obivous differences.

Not just 'probable', Bush actually said that.

Of course this is not the kind of behavior you want to encourage. But it has more to do with "your rights online" than a proposed change to cable standards.

Hamas, a leading Palestinian terror network, also has responsibility for the provision of Hospitals and food distribution. If you disagree with them, then you may suffer retribution in many ways.

Also the palestinian judicial system is wrought with corruption, although this is just what I can gleen from Haaretz and the Word on the Stetl. Israeli business have the benefit of a working Judicial system, which is impartial. Take for instance the Supreme Court finding that Israel must take down some parts of the highly controversial Wall at some cost.

Yep, to about the tune of $2 Billion With A Capital B in "military aide", and +$700M in economic aide. $3B isn't enough- they want more for "border security" and whatnot.

Think I'm using some nazi group for my figures? Phbt. Try the Haaretz.

None of this counts the billions in defense spending; Israel makes a HUGE number of major and minor systems for virtually every US military vehicle.

Slighty sarcastic view- maybe if we saved that $3B+/yr, we'd solve two problems at once- the Israelis would get a lot more serious about the peace process, and we'd have money to pump into our own economy instead of theirs. Like, say, our crumbling roads/railway system, healthcare/retirement, inadequate community emergency services, etc.

Of course, that will never happen. Any politician who suggests cutting aide to Israel stands to be accused of anti-semetism...

News link here.

How can we help these people?

"A 150-member Israeli aid delegation canceled its mission to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after the country - one of the hardest hit in the Asian tsunami disaster - refused to accept the Israeli team, Israel Defense Forces officials said."

haaretz.com

I can only imagine how the people affected might feel if they ever heard of things like this.. their government turning away life saving aid..

"The disengagement plan is the preservative of the sequence principle. It is the bottle of formaldehyde within which you place the president's formula so that it will be preserved for a very lengthy period. The disengagement is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians." (my emphasis)

Does the idea of putting artifical intelligence into a killing machine make anyone else a little nervous?

Are these unmanned drones used in Israel AI-driven?
The article says, the drone killed two 14- and 15-year-old children.
Does anybody know about these?

re: the well link - 300 Jewish youth assembling from all over the continent "to talk Jewish, to think Jewish, to dance Jewish and to kiss Jewish" over the coming week.

I've never heard of "Jewish kissing," but visualizing the classic Jewish Mother character, something in me just goes, "Eeewww!"

Yeah, those French anti-Nazi laws seem to be working real well.

Look at this hot girl those fucking ragheads blew up this morning. If this isn't a reason to go Hitler on the sand-niggers I don't know what is.

Has Bush done, said, implied, mimed, ANYTHING that would lead to the impression that he is a "messenger of God"

Yes - from Common Dreams (who, in turn was quoting the Israeli newspaper Haaretz):

Bush said: 'God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.'

link for your convenience.

Another link

Ok, if you want to talk about lies and liars--and imply GW Bush (I assume that's who you are implying?) is a liar--what's an example of a lie he told?

Too many to even list here, but here's a typical example (from the Center for American Progress claim vs. fact db):

Claim: "The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons...And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes." [Source: White House Web site - since taken down]

Fact: "Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections." - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03

Bush knew, or should have known, that his claim was false.

Sean

... Change alot very soon. Speed of Light anyone?

This'll change everything with computers.

OK, I'll make one last reply. Before anyone tells me, yes, I'm feeding the trolls. Sorry!

you claim that Palestinians only want to remove Israel. if they did not, Israel would embrace them with open arms.

i show and document that the opposite is true. Israel wants to remove the Palestinians from their land and expand it's borders. it set up settlements in the W.Bank, which needed military protection, so occupation was justified. i showed you the hard numbers as proof. Israel wants no more ethnic Arabs inside it's borders, because that would mean the end of a Jewish national state.

These positions are not opposite. They are both true and therefore not contradictory. Israel wants to distance themselves (literally) from the killers of Palestine. To argue by introducing a flawed presumption is dishonest. (You did that with the "open arms" reference, too. I never said that. There's too much hatred to get over first.)

And be careful when you try to justify strapping bombs on 12 year old boys to go kill innocents...
i did not refer to any 12 year olds. that is a straw man argument.

No strawman there... You attempted to justify Palestinian violence. That is an example of Palestinian violence. True, it's not the usual flavor of Palestinian violence. Most of their bombers tend to be of legal age. But it is a legitimate incident to bring up because it is part and parcel consistent with the MO of Palestinian terror. Remove the age reference, and it's pretty much identical to hundreds of other bombings. I will give you one point. The child wasn't 12. He was 14.

You just might come out looking like an ass. Your style of argument certainly does that for you.
you calling me an ass does not make me one. again, vulgarity.

I didn't call you an ass. I suggested those that attempt to justify Palestinian violence look like asses. I also suggested that your argument makes you look like an ass. Is it mildly vulgar? Absolutely. It's still pretty tame, though. Come on, you can find something better to bitch about. (Ohhh! More vulgarity! ;) Interesting how your complaint about my mild vulgarity is positioned so prominently in your rebuttal...

it has nothing to do with their leaders. people usually choose as leaders those who they think share their beliefs and best represent them. maybe they think that because of Israel's policy they have no normal future:

Are you suggesting Palestinians vote for their leaders? Yes, technically they do, but I would suggest PNA elections aren't nearly as democratic as US or Western European democracies. Was Arafat opposed in the election? (I truly don't know.) Oh yes, Arafat... A known killer. I would also suggest that any constituency that would elect Arafat is morally bankrupt for some reason. Or perhaps the elections were kind of like the iraqis electing Saddam year after year? I do not know enough about them to suggest the PNA elections are a farce, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least. The PNA was the PLO, for crying out loud...

But can you really justify their actions?
but can you justify the following:

You side-stepped the question. As for the incidents you bring up, they are unfortunate, but they are all one-offs. They are not examples of standard MO's. I can find many instances of rape and murder in any town in the US, but that is not the normal experience for most US citizens. Your examples don't mean anything in the big picture (unlike my bomber reference, except, as I mentioned, the age of the bomber).

If so, you are as morally bankrupt as those that use terror for political gain. (Which is truly ironic... Are the Palestinians better off for terrorism? No, and that's my point.)

what is their alternative to terrorism?
if they give up, they

Based on yout logic, America should stop supporting a country because that countries enemies are now America's enemies. Bullshit. Israel is only 50 years old, has been at war all 50 of those years, and ontop of being a Jewish state in what I like to call Arab Territory, it is also a democracy in Dictator Land. Every single American should be so proud for America's support of Israel.

The very fact that thugs such as Bin-Laden and Al-Zawahii exist is enough of a reason for America to defend itself and to support Israel. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa Martyrs, Hizzbolah, and Al Qaeda may not all be directly linked, but they all want to oppress Christinas, Jews, Women, and Free Westerners. These people need to pay for convincing Children to kill themselves. And people like Yassin[HaAretz] should be dead.

Americans should know that Bin-Laden hates Israel, but Americans should rally support, because as much as it hurt us to have planes kill people on that fatefull morning, Israelis have to live with the fear of Homicide Bombings on a daily basis.

AL Qadea is a group of terrosits that will say or do anything to gain support. Bin-Laden saying that he hates Israel, however true it is, will incite those who are told to hate Israel to join his cause. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria(Lebanon), Afghanistan, and all the other shitholes of Dictator Land, all teach their children to hate two things, American and Israel. So if they preach it, lets give them a reason.

There will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate ours." - Golda Meir

If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence. If the Israelis put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel.
Think about it...

I'm sorry but this is entirely untrue. Ask any person who believes that Israel is in the right throughout the Israel-Displaced Jordanian struggle. It is very clear at many times that the BBC is very pro-liberal and anti-Israel (not anti-Semetic, but some of my friends would take the extra leap). I think that the above poster is taking one side of the reputation. I've never heard of the BBC being "unbiased" or more truthful than anyone else.

Just as a sidenote, anyone who gets news about current events/attacks in Israel from the BBC needs to reevaluate their sources. Might I suggest a few Israeli news sources? The most popular paper in Israel, the Jersualem Post, is available online here. There is also the Ha'aretz newspaper available online here. The Ha'aretz features more of a newswire design, but the JPost has more renouned journalism.

the controversy continues. and Nasa seems to be dragging its' feet in making certain changes

Israel National News, or Arutz Sheva (Channel 7) as it's more commonly known, is a heavily right wing biased media outlet whose management was recently sentenced to various prison terms for operating an illegal radio station.

More details here

It's an odd source for tech news.

I don't think that Al Qaeda or any other terrorist faction will ever be able to design such weapons.

The arab world intends to acquire nuclear weapons, and has both the scientific talent and funding necessary to do so. It is just obvious that that is what they need to do to stand up to Israel as it cleanses their ethnic group from Palestine.

You can count on and be sure that they will do so. If you want to understand why they would do so, read about the daily humiliation your tax dollar funded theocracy puts them through.

The wrong friends can be as dangerous to your safety as any enemy.

Wow, what propaganda rags you been reading?

Insufficiently Jewish? Like the 1 million Arab-Israeli citizens with full citizenship rights? Like the various Arab political parties in Israel? Like the Arab supreme court justice in Israel? Like the Druze community in Israel? The only difference is that Israeli-Arabs are exempt from having to serve in the army for obvious reasons. Not bad for a 55 year old country - run a quick comparison with any other country in the region or even in Europe and you'll see just how amazing it is.

If you mean land that was always intended to be returned for some true peace, then you can obviously see why turning it over to a terrorist thug would have to opposite effect. That is why, although they wanted to trade the land for peace with all her neighbors in 1967, Arab mentality prevented it and continues to prevent peace to this day:

"On June 19, 1967, scarcely ten days after the cease-fire, the Israeli government decided in a secret cabinet session to return all of the Sinai Peninsula, all of the Golan Heights, to Egypt and Syria respectively in return for full peace treaties. At the same time, the Israeli government launched a clandestine operation to canvass 80 Palestinian notables on the West Bank about the possibility of creating an autonomous Palestinian entity, leading potentially to an independent Palestinian state. The Egyptians and the Syrians rejected this overture. They convened at Khartoum at the end of the summer, and they passed the infamous Three No's: no negotiations, no peace, no recognition of Israel. The Palestinian notables in the West Bank, the protocols of the discussions, all said they'd be interested in having an autonomous entity. They certainly wanted independence. But they were afraid if they concluded any peace treaty at all with Israel, they'd be executed. A historic opportunity was lost that summer, and we've lived with the consequences ever since"

I hope you're as concerned with your tax dollars going to the direct indoctrination of Palestinian children or the funds going to corrupt NGOs or to support Palestinian apartheid.

You have a right to comment. In fact, you even have a right to that incredibly stupid and uninformed comment you just made, but repeating mindless lies just makes you look all the more incompetent.

How could one stop research in so important area of science called rocket engines?

How a government could to that?

There seems to be some kind of plot in it
(from Bruce Simpson's page):

The strange thing is that just a matter of months ago, they told me I could export the very same technology to Iran -- despite the fact that it is widely considered to be a terrorist sponsor and similar exports are prohibited in the USA.

And then the government decided shut it down.

Note also that israeli x prize team recruits serious brainpower.

If things are not about money (or sex) then politics must be involved.

I hope that such a genius person as Bruce will either join Xprize or find another way to continue his very important for science work on rocket engines.

An Israeli recording company, NMC, has just launched a new music service: Songs.co.il. It's basically 4 NIS per song (which is a bit less than 99 cents), with no subscription, but the kicker is that you buy regular non-DRMed MP3s, which you can download as many time as you'd like once you paid for them.
Keep in mind that Israel is one of the top pirating countries, and it will be interesting to see what will happen with this (I know I bought 10+ songs today)...
More info can be found here.

Yes, these terrible anti-Semites and leftists eh? Hackers, anti-Semites, leftists... All the same.

I call bullshit.

You dont care about anything that doesnt affect you.

Show us the links to the articles you submitted.

--
Poll: 85% of Palestinians support mutual end to violence"
Poll actually linked to - unlike cowardly parent.
And this Poll has a larger sample size AND is more recent then cowardly parent's misleading quote.

Is it me, or is Ariel Sharon sounding more and more far right? Anti-Semitism? That lot couldn't see anti-semitism if it came along and kicked them in the bollocks.

Ha'aretz (the best Israeli newpaper) carried this story yesterday:

"Treasury suspends Microsoft renewal".

Ha'aretz (the best Israeli newpaper) carried this story yesterday:

"Treasury suspends Microsoft renewal".

Are there Palestinian groups that engage in violence that could arguably be legitimate resistance and who actively oppose terrorist activity?

I do in fact support annexation of the territories by Israel, since I increasingly believe that the only realistic solution is a binational state. Short of annexation, I also support Israeli reoccupation of the territories, since it has already occured in fact, if not in name. For Israel to do so would not only end the corrupt and pathetic reign of the Palestinian Authority, but would force Israel to assume its responsibilities as an occupying power. Read International community supports a deluxe occupation by Meron Benvenisti.